DARPA job posting talks of developing an autonomous, grenade-wielding robot
By Laura June 
posted February 4th 2010 8:05PM
posted February 4th 2010 8:05PM
DARPA's just put up a pretty interesting job posting... if you're the wary-of-our-future-being-controlled-by-robots type, anyway. The call involves a new research and development program called ARM. Basically, DARPA's looking to build a robot that can use its arms to dexterously and autonomously grasp objects. The quote from the job posting which is raising eyebrows around here says that the bot should be able to "hold an inert grenade with one hand, and pull the pin with the other hand" without any direction from humans. Now, we're not really trying to hit the alarmist angle, and we're all for advancements in robot tech... but it seems to us we'd have less to worry about if the job posting had said "should be able to hold a kitten in one hand, and pet it with the other." Right guys?
Ak! This one worries me a little, I mean, usually engadget's robot apocalypse posts are a little excessive, this one however, definitely scary.
Oh god, it's happening.
Why is this is a bad idea?
Someone tell me, please, because this is just asking for trouble. LOL
Still waiting for fembots with laser nipples
It's the Cylons! This has all happened before, it will all happen again!
I love the use of the word inert! Of course, it wouldn't be able to pull the pin in a live grenade, right? Right? Hello?