[extropy-chat] Fighting Robots

[ben]

*Humanoid* robots (for fighting) sounds daft to me.
Too easy to trip up, surely, and if one leg gets damaged, it can't move 
(i doubt a hopping robot soldier would be very menacing).

So, how about this: Insectoid fighting robots.

I'm thinking of something along the lines of the insect soldiers in the 
'Starship Troopers' movie, or the 'shadows' in Bablylon 5.

Plenty of redundant legs (six legs are easier to control than two, 
anyway, and static stability is a plus in a robot with limited energy), 
and then there's the psychological aspect; Well, what would make you run 
away screaming, a giant metal man with a big gun, or a bloody great 
spiky-legged cockroach/spider/worst nightmare thing, with clacking jaws 
and a big gun?

Just building the things would be scary enough, never mind having one 
scuttling after you at 50mph.

If you're going to build robot soldiers, you might as well take 
advantage of human psychology, and build *terrifying* robot soldiers.

Of course, if they are going up against other robots rather than humans, 
the psychology angle doesn't apply, but the other things still do.

ben