Robot soldiers to debut soon

17 Jun 2002

Tiny "robot soldiers" capable of clearing landmines, detecting chemical weapons and guiding missile strikes ahead of troops will be commonplace by 2001, scientists said Monday. The robots, which are being designed in a $33 million lab in Albuquerque, N.M., will be the size of a shoe box or as small as a dime. Nicknamed "robugs," the tiny battlefield robots will be cheap and dispensable, loaded with electronics found on walkmans and cellular phones.