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Ghost Robotics and SWORD International have teamed up to create a rifle-toting "robot dog." Called the Special Purpose Unmanned Rifle, or SPUR, the system adds a 6.5mm Creedmoor rifle from SWORD to one of Ghost Robotics' quadrupedal unmanned ground vehicles, or Q-UGVs. The SPUR made its debut on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army's (AUSA) main annual convention in Washington, D.C., which opened yesterday. Though Ghost Robotics is partnered with a number of other companies to explore defense and security applications, among others, for its Q-UGVs — which you can read more about in this past...

In eastern Ladakh, India and China have deployed a considerable number of tanks in the standoff at the LAC. The heavy T-72 and T-90 tanks of India are facing the Type 15 light Chinese tanks. Both sides claim superiority. These points of view miss the larger picture, that the main threat to a tank today is not from another tank, but from the air. This is particularly true in the open, barren LAC. The fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has occupied little attention in the Indian media, but it is proving to be of great interest to the military community....

Today, the RealCare Baby 3 infant simulator is a fantastically sophisticated, computer-programmed doll that costs up to $1,000 to replace if you lose it. (I know because I had to sign a waiver; Anna’s school has six of them, provided through a grant from a local education foundation.) The student wears a corresponding wristband that logs his or her responses to the baby through a radio frequency identification tag. Then she — and most of the caregivers are female — has to determine what the baby needs, based on distinctly different cries. “Just like a real baby, you eventually kind of can tell — that’s a...

I always hated the Jawas. As a kid, the Jawas weren’t scary the way Stormtroopers or Darth Vader were. But there was something unsettling about them. The Tusken Raiders might have been primitive savages who tried to kill Luke Skywalker—who, back then, was my hero—but the Jawas seemed worse. A little bit evil, even. The feeling was so pronounced that in the dozens of times I watched A New Hope as a child, the massacre of the Jawas never roused even a beat of sympathy in me. It was the opposite, actually. Every time C-3PO piled the Jawa carcasses into...

(CNN)The haters of the Internet have never met a target they couldn't denounce. Even Star Wars." While much of the world watches and rewatches the new "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" trailer for clues about the eagerly anticipated movie, a small minority of people have attacked the film's ethnically diverse casting as "anti-white." "#BoycottStarWarsVII because it is anti-white propaganda promoting #whitegenocide," read a tweet Monday from an account called End Cultural Marxism. The same Twitter user also called J.J. Abrams, the movie's director, a "Jewish activist" and "an anti-white nut." Another Twitter user called for a boycott of the movie...

In Iraq, the terrorists have come to realize that the small robots American troops are using, are sometimes more dangerous than the Americans themselves. There are several thousand of these small (under 100 pounds, and look like a miniature tank) droids in use, and they have become a primary target for the terrorists. The most common use of these robots is to check out objects that might be roadside bombs. Terrorists will detonate their roadside bomb if they see a robot going to check it out, and will fire on the droids as well. Users have come to rely on...

Thirty years ago, in theaters near and far, far away, a movie opened the imaginations of millions, combining the magic of mythology and special effects to launch the "Star Wars" phenomenon. A star of those films -- the brave little robot R2-D2 -- is about to take a turn collecting mail as the Postal Service and Lucasfilm Ltd. commemorate that movie launch. The post office is wrapping mail collection boxes in some 200 cities nationwide in a special covering to look like R2-D2. It's part of a promotion for a new stamp to be announced March 28, said Anita T....

In Pictures: Robot menagerie An ethical code to prevent humans abusing robots, and vice versa, is being drawn up by South Korea. The Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for users and manufacturers and will be released later in 2007. It is being put together by a five member team of experts that includes futurists and a science fiction writer. The South Korean government has identified robotics as a key economic driver and is pumping millions of dollars into research. "The government plans to set ethical guidelines concerning the roles and functions of robots as robots are expected to...

Storm trooper: Let me see your identification. Obi-Wan: [with a small wave of his hand] You don't need to see his identification. Storm trooper: We don't need to see his identification. Obi-Wan: These aren't the droids you're looking for. Storm trooper: These aren't the droids we're looking for. Obi-Wan: He can go about his business. Storm trooper: You can go about your business. Obi-Wan: Move along. Storm trooper: Move along... move along. In spite of both Mitt Romney's and Rudy Giuliani's long records of extreme-left governance, they are nonetheless traveling the country seeking to snatch the mantle of Reagan. And,...