Lethal robotic technologies: The implications for human rights and international humanitarian law

Abstract

Remote-controlled aerial weapons systems and their ground-based equivalents are already a commonplace. Those best known to the general public are the unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, whose use has grown exponentially in recent years. The next major development is the advent of armed, robotic weapons systems that can operate more or less autonomously. Over the past decade, the number and type of unmanned vehicle systems (UVS) developed for, and deployed in, armed conflict and law-enforcement contexts has grown at an astonishing pace. The speed, reach, capabilities and automation of robotic systems are all rapidly increasing. Unmanned technologies already in use or currently in advanced stages of development - including unmanned airplanes, helicopters, aquatic and ground vehicles - can be controlled remotely to carry out a wide array of tasks: surveillance, reconnaissance, checkpoint security, neutralisation of an improvised explosive device, biological or chemical weapon sensing, removal of debris, search and rescue, street patrols, and more. They can also be equipped with weapons to be used against targets or in self-defence. Some of these technologies are semi-automated, and can, for example, land, take off, fly, or patrol without human control. Robotic sentries, including towers equipped with surveillance capacity and machine guns, are in use at the borders of some countries. In the very near future, the technology will exist to create robots capable of targeting and killing either with minimal human involvement or without the need for any direct human control or authorisation.