The Speculist

Via GeekPress, the company that brought us Roomba -- the cute, almost cuddly household cleaning robot -- is moving into some surprising new territory:

IRobot Corp. of Burlington, famous for its robotic vacuum cleaners, has teamed up with researchers at Boston University to develop a military robot capable of spotting enemy snipers.IRobot demonstrated the system, called REDOWL (for Robot Enhanced Detection Outpost with Lasers), at the Association of the United States Army convention in Washington yesterday. Testers struck pieces of metal to simulate gunshots. REDOWL quickly aimed its infrared camera and laser rangefinder at the source of the noise, just as it did in tests at a Medfield gun range.

REDOWL is based on PackBot, which was the first IRobot unit to be drafted into military service. PackBot is the Ensign Redshirt of the military robot world, scouting out dangerous terrain and being the first to enter buildings that may be booby trapped.

If this REDOWL business starts to sound a little too much like the Terminator, fear not. At least not yet:

In theory, a REDOWL system could fire back at an enemy, but [deputy director of the Boston University Photonics Center Glenn] Thoren said the hardware isn't strong enough to support the weight of a gun. Besides, he said, it would be dangerous to have a weapon-toting robot that could open fire on its own.

"You need to have a man in the loop," he said.

I just wonder whether IRobot realizes what they're potentially sitting on, should they start to combine some of these functions. Say you had a robot that would be the first in for any dangerous situation, that warded off bad guys, and that vacuumed. Shucks, throw in a tolerance for chick flicks and some basic childrearing skills -- as well as a good-providing career like, say, architecture -- and we're well on our way to the world's first robotic husband.

We need to watch out, fellas. It isn't just factory jobs that can be replaced by automation.