ROBOT ASTRONAUT:

“Oh Steve,” you’re thinking, “this does not spell our impending robot-inflicted doom. It’s just a helpful robotic astronaut. So what if they made it look just like Boba Fett? What harm could it cause us? It doesn’t even have legs! It doesn’t have, for instance, an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, or the M240G Medium Machine Gun, or a 9 mm Uzi, or an Anti-Personnel/Obstacle Breaching System (APOBS)”

GLADIATOR TACTICAL UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE:

It looks like something out of Robocop, a mini tank-treaded terror bristling with so many cannon and guns that only a Hollywood screenwriter could have dreamed it up.

It’s designed to be RoboMarine — technically the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle — and proponents say it would have come in handy in trouble spots ranging from Somalia, Kosovo and Bosnia to Afghanistan and Iraq.

As unmanned aerial vehicles like the Predator continue to chalk up successes, with more than 10 UAVs utilized in Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Marine Corps expects to be the first service to field a robot for crowd control.

The Gladiator is loaded with all sorts of gadgets and weaponry, including day and night cameras, a chemical detection system, Light Vehicle Obscuration Smoke System, and is mounted with either M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, the M240G Medium Machine Gun, 9 mm Uzi or an Anti-Personnel/Obstacle Breaching System (APOBS).