Humanoid Robot Firm Plans to Equip Machines with Weapons

Foundation Future Industries, a technology firm with investors including Eric Trump, is preparing to give its humanoid robots lethal capabilities. Company CEO Sankaet Pathak told WIRED that the firm is exploring "kinetic systems," meaning weapon systems, and plans to "unveil something in the next few months." Beyond combat, the robots are intended for logistics, reconnaissance, and inspection tasks.

The U.S. military has a long-standing interest in humanoids. In recent years, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Army's xTechHumanoids program have supported the development of humanoid technology. Military organizations globally are actively seeking new autonomous and semi-autonomous systems, such as drones and vehicles. Humanoids could assist soldiers in difficult terrain and perform tasks that currently risk human lives. Foundation Future Industries has tested its robot, named "Phantom MK1," with Ukrainian forces, reportedly using the conflict in Ukraine as a testing ground.

The company has secured government contracts worth millions of dollars and boasts high-profile backers like Eric Trump, who also serves as the company's chief strategy officer. Foundation Future Industries, founded earlier this year, also acquired Boardwalk Robotics, a company that had closely collaborated with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), a prominent research institute in humanoid robotics. While the company has mentioned a Pentagon contract, closer examination suggests a significant portion of its contracts were inherited from Boardwalk and IHMC, with the company yet to independently secure substantial new public funding.

Industry experts see potential in military applications. One robotics researcher, who requested anonymity, noted that humanoids could be crucial for first entry into buildings and hazardous situations where soldiers' lives are at risk. "It's so close to feasible that I'm surprised they aren't already fielded," the researcher stated. However, developing fully autonomous robot soldiers remains a significant challenge. Robert Griffin, a researcher at IHMC, pointed out that "it's difficult to disentangle the current state of the art from the potential" and that numerous general robotics challenges exist in developing an actual robot soldier.