BEAR robot rescues human casualties when humans can’t

Posted on June 7, 2007 in National News Notes by DM

Oh dear God - I can’t believe I just found this today. This is one of those ideas that sounds good when you dream it up at 3 a.m., but in the light of day it just starts to look crazier and crazier. The idea is, actually, quite sound: create a robot that can be sent in to situations too dangerous for humans. In the military, one such situation is the process of rescuing injured troops.

Normally, a human medic performs this task - he pulls injured troops out of the direct line of fire so he can begin treatment of their wounds. It’s the type of job that makes heroes out of ordinary men. It seems that creating a robot to go in and pull troops to safety would be a good idea - one less life risked in the process of rescue.

But there is another aspect to this issue, and I think it deserves serious consideration. The human medic doesn’t just pull people to safety. He also performs a sort of instantaneous triage, assessing the severity of injuries and determining how best to move someone from a particular spot. I doubt that the BEAR is programmed to think these things through. Can a BEAR actually do more damage to a person simply because it’s unable to assess the injuries? Can it react to continued incoming fire to further protect the wounded from further harm?

The idea to give the BEAR a reassuring appearance - in this case the face of a teddy bear - seems to be not so much a true result of applied psychological theory, but rather a cutsie way to capitalize on the interesting acronymn. If you really wanted to give the thing a comforting face to troops in battle, give it the look of a warm and caring nurse - a mother figure. Only Radar O’Reilly would be comforted by a robot that looks like a teddy bear.

And did you notice the maker’s logo on its chest? It certainly won’t be long til some enterprising marketer decides to brand the damn thing. Coca-Cola, soldier?

Share this with friends: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.