Les robots ont-ils besoin de guerres?

[bormandg]

C'est ce que laisse entendre un article d'hier du Wall Street Journal Europe:

As wars wind down, Robot makers face uncertainty

The administration wants to trim funding that has fueled the rise of the robotics industry, but it also says it backs emerging technologies.

Robots, once the inhabitants of science fiction, have become a regular feature of the real- life battlefield, used by U. S. troops to scout for booby traps and detect roadside bombs. But with the war in Iraq over and the conflict in Afghanistan winding down, robot makers are facing a reboot.

The Obama administration wants to scale back so- called wartime spending accounts, which would threaten an important source of funding for new robotic equipment. At the same time, the administration’s new defense strategy pledges a “strong commitment” to emerging technologies and singles out robotics as an area of promise.

Industry officials say the shift in government support is taking place just as the robotics market is maturing. Eight years ago, the U. S. Army says had a total of 162 robots and robotic devices. Since then, it has bought 7,000 robots. With some devices lost in combat and others retired, it now has more than 4,000 on hand.

In the early days of the Iraq War, the U.S. military bought a variety of robots off the shelf, rather than going through the lengthy process of selecting and developing a one-sizefitsall model. They can range in price from a just over $10,000 to a quarter of a million. Robots took on more missions beyond their early deployment as bomb detectors—to scouting inside bunkers or caves. They come in many forms, from handheld devices tossed through in a window to check out a room, to large, tracked robots that can lift heavy objects.

“The challenges we have seen over the past 10 years have made unmanned systems essential.” said Mark Hewitt, who heads operations and strategic development for robot-maker Qinetiq North America’s Technology Solutions Group.

Qinetiq, the U. S.- incorporated subsidiary of the U. K.’s Qinetiq Group PLC., makes the Talon and the Dragon-runner, robots that scoot along on tracks and can be used to find roadside bombs, search buildings or watch checkpoints.

No single robot manufacturer could keep pace with demand as the Iraq War began, so the Army picked five vendors to supply robots in different configurations. But the devices didn’t have common parts, training or logistics support.

Joe Dyer, chief strategy officer of irobot Corp., the maker of the PackBot, a widely fielded robot that can be carried in a soldier’s rucksack, said the company expected more robots to become “programs of record,” Pentagon shorthand for established procurement programs that are paid for through the regular Defense Department budget— not through wartime spending accounts.

Such a program would likely lead to a standardized way for field units to get spare parts when the robots break down.

“We foresee and have had discussions with [ the Department of Defense] about their efforts to purge these ‘orphan robots’ from the system, and replace them with the program of record,” he said.

As government funding changes, manufacturers are also looking for new applications for robotic technology. Qinetiq is developing ways to make military vehicles— such as trucks or Humvees — “optionally manned,” equipped with aftermarket kits that would allow them to be driven by remote control, or even operate autonomously.

Federal officials are encouraging inventiveness. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this week announced a contest to develop robots that could aid in disaster response.

Alan Bignall, president and chief executive of Reconrobotics, said technological change “has accelerated dramatically” because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. ReconRobotics won an order in February from the Army for 1,100 of its Recon Scout XT, a small, throwable robot— or “Throwbot”— shaped like a dumbbell and weighing 1.2 pounds.

Mr. Bignall compared the adoption of robots to the use of items such as high- end protective vests and night- vision equipment that were first given primarily to specialoperations or front- line units, but are now more widely used.

“Years ago, ballistic vests and night vision goggles used to be only for special people, and then people realized, ‘Wow, these are useful all over,’” Mr. Bignall said.