Who's driving? Robots aid soldiers, but can be irritating.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: UP FRONT

The prevailing thinking in the Army about deploying unmanned combat vehicles is that they keep soldiers out of harm's way.

That premise continues to fuel research into dozens of military programs seeking to develop robotic systems that could be sent into combat without human operators.

Feedback from soldiers who participated in a recent Army experiment at Fort Knox, Ky., however, challenges some of the conventional wisdom associated with the use of robots in combat.

The six-week experiment--involving two unmanned Stryker light armored vehicles outfitted with advanced sensors--was intended to measure soldier workload and performance while operating robots. It also shed light on what soldiers like and don't like about robots.

Their observations are leading researchers to believe that robotic technology has the potential to become a huge assist in combat operations, but that too much automation may not be desirable.

As part of a reconnaissance mission during the experiment at Fort Knox, two soldiers rode in the back compartment of one of the two unmanned Strykers. They were not controlling or driving the vehicle, which was on autopilot mode and had been programmed to follow a particular route.

"It's what we call a manned robot," says Patrick Nunez, a scientist at the Army Tank-Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center, who oversaw the experiment.

"This is one of the first times we've done an experiment with a manned vehicle on autopilot," he says. "The soldiers don't have a direct view out of the vehicle. They have cameras that see."

The other Stryker served as a "follower" robot and did not have a crew inside.

The lead vehicle was charged with locating enemy forces downrange and assessing their strength. The soldiers inside the robot's crew station relied on digital maps and data to familiarize themselves with the local area. They also received intelligence from their command center.

The experiment intentionally was designed to overload the soldiers' senses and overwhelm them. While they were busy planning their route, red icons--indicating enemy combatants launching rocket-propelled grenades--popped up on their intelligence terminals. "We measured their ability to react and plan a reconnaissance of the red force," Nunez says. "They needed to find a route to sneak up and look at the red force. They needed to think about the geography, topography and figure out the best route."

When multiple targets were spotted, the crew...