LOD: Israeli defense contractor on Monday launched a long-controlled robot which he said can patrol battle zones, track infiltrators and open fire.
Unmanned vehicles are the latest addition to the world of drone technology, which quickly reshaped the modern battlefield.
Supporters say such a semi-autonomic engine allows troops to protect their army, while critics are afraid to mark other malicious steps towards robots that make life-or-death decisions.
The four-wheel drive robot presented Monday was developed by the Israeli Aerospace Industry owned by the state ‘”Rex MKII.” It is operated by electronic tablets and can be equipped with two machine guns, cameras and sensors, said Rani Avni, deputy head of the company’s autonomous system division.
Robots can collect intelligence for land forces, bring injured soldiers and supply in and out of the battle, and attack the nearest target.
This is the most advanced more than half a dozen unmanned vehicles developed by subsidiaries Aerospace Industries, Elta Systems, for the past 15 years.
The Israeli military currently uses smaller but similar vehicles called Jaguar to patrol the border with the Gaza Strip and help enforce Israel’s blockade in 2007, after the tiny region was confiscated by Islamic militant groups Hamas.
Gaza is home to 2 million Palestinians who have been largely locked by blockades, which are also supported to some extent by Egypt.
The border area is a site that is often protested and occasionally efforts by Palestinian militants or desperate workers to infiltrate Israel.
Israeli soldiers did not respond when asked details about how they used Jaguar, one of the many tools, including drones armed with guided missiles, which have provided extensive technology excellence over Hamas.
Unmanned land vehicles are increasingly used by other forces, including those in the United States, Britain and Russia.
Their assignments include logistics support, mining removal and shooting weapons.
The tablet can control the vehicle manually.
But many of its functions, including movement and surveillance systems, can also run independently.
“With each mission, the device collects more data which is then studied for future mission,” said Yonni Gedj, an operational expert in the company’s robotics division.
Critics have raised concerns that robot weapons can decide for themselves, maybe mistaken, to shoot the target.
The company said such abilities exist but were not offered to customers.
“It is possible to make weapons itself also autonomous, however, it is the current user’s decision,” said Avni.
“System maturity or user does not yet exist.” Bonnie Docherty, a senior researcher from the Human Rights Watch Division, said such weapons were worried because they could not be trusted to distinguish between combatants and civilians or make the right call on attacks that could be carried out on the nearest civilians.
“The machine cannot understand the value of human life, which basically damages human dignity and violates human rights law,” Docherty said.
In the 2012 report, Docherty, a lecturer at Harvard Law School, called for a fully automated weapon to be banned by international law.
Janes Defense Magazine said the development of autonomous land vehicles had lagged behind the aircraft and autonomous vessels because moving across the land far more complex than navigating water or air.
Unlike the Open Ocean, the vehicle must deal with “holes on the road” and know exactly the power to be applied to overcome physical barriers, the report said.
Technology in self-driving vehicles has also raised concern.
Tesla’s electric car manufacturer, among other companies, has been connected with a series of fatal accidents, including incidents in Arizona in 2018 when a woman was hit by a car driving in Autopilot.
The Israeli drone vehicle is exhibited on the defense and defense system of the International Defense Exhibition this week in London.