Technology > bones and blood

What are the advantages of robots compared to humans on the battlefield?

One of the biggest advantages that robots have over humans is a lack of emotions. Anger at seeing your friends die or fear for your own life can lead to poor judgment and thus mistakes or even war crimes. Robots do as they are told, and can possibly some day make better decisions than humans because of the lack of these. Also, with advances in technology, there is more information to process and decisions need to made at a much faster rate, so a robots faster reaction time and processing speed means they can make better decisions in real time than humans can, or at least come up with possible solutions that humans can choose from. Also, robots do not need to be fed, to sleep, to be given time off, so they really do have a much bigger bang for their buck as they say. Similarly, a robot has no sense of self-preservation so it will do everything it can to fulfill its objectives, even if it means its own life. Also, if you pay a company they will give you as many robots as you need, so you don't need to spend extra time and money recruiting them, like you do for human soldiers. So the no-question, think faster iron hearted soldier who doesn't need any resources, who literally succeeds or dies trying, and whose teammates never stop coming has a serious appeal.

For me, the biggest advantage is the lack of risk. Robots can be deployed without any risk of human casualties for the side that uses them. We already use robots for bomb squad disposal, because obviously it is far better if a robot is blown up than a human. The implications of this on the battlefield mean that robots are capable of being shot at much longer than humans before a life or death decision must be made. A robot can withstand considerable fire and process the situation for much longer than a human can, simply because the robot doesn't have to worry about protecting its own life and limb while it takes time to decide if an attacker is friend or foe. Likewise, the lack of risk means we can deploy robotic soldiers into much more risky operations, such as intelligence to very remote and heavily patrolled areas, missions against heavily reinforced strongholds, etc.

In addition to what's already been said, I feel that employing robots on the battlefield will drive down the current costs of our military. Granted that as our technology progresses, the robotic soldiers will become more and more costly to manufacture and maintain. The catch is that you don't need to pay them, you don't need to feed them, they're more repairable that humans are, and they would be more efficient on the battlefield, resulting in less ammo waisted. In terms of an economic issue, the money saved on these robotic soldier could be pumped into more military research, or it could be sent back into the economy in the form of better schools, relief programs, and other issues we'll face in the years to come.