Watch: the future of autonomous robots

Defense Department laboratories have for years worked on developing robotic systems that can go into areas where it’s too dangerous for soldiers to tread. Small, rugged vehicles that can search for mines or other explosives, for instance, or aerial vehicles that that deliver intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Most of those systems are operated by a controller, however; the ne3xt step is to make the autonomous.

The Air Force Research Laboratory has put together a video showing of how some of those systems will work, from “bumper bots” that knock around a room, changing direction when they hit something—and collecting data as they go—to teams of autonomous quadcopters that can enter a burning building or other potentially dangerous structure and send back video and other sensors data. And note that this is the near future for autonomous robots—researchers are working on some even smaller, insect-sized systems.