F.E.D.O.R Robot Revealed: Rise of the (Russian) Terminator?

The Russian space agency has revealed that their new robotic humanoid, named Fedor, is capable of firing guns and can drive.

RUSSIA REVEALS ROBOT CAPABLE OF FIRING WEAPONS

The robot, who stands 6 feet tall and weighs in at around 235lbs, can fire two handguns simultaneously, do press ups and even use tools such as drills and soldering irons, although the team behind it have even bigger plans for the future. They claim that within five years the robot will be in use on the moon and performing many of the tasks now performed by astronauts on the international space station.

The program is being overseen by Deputy prime minister and head of the state defence industry Dmitry Rogozin, who has made several statements about the progress of the robot on Twitter.

"The robot of the F.E.D.O.R. Platform showed skills of firing using both arms. Currently, the work on fine motor skills and decision algorithms is underway."

After receiving a lot of international media interest in the footage of the robot firing weapons he later added:

"Shooting exercises is a method of teaching the robot to set priorities and make instant decisions. We are creating AI, not Terminator"

Fedor was previously known as 'Avatar' and was initially designed to retrieve people trapped in collapsed buildings. The new moniker actually stands for: Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research.

Aside from not needing a space suit, the robot offers numerous other benefits for use in space over astronauts. Firstly it requires no food, oxygen or even gravity to function, only a power source, meaning that potentially they can stay in space indefinitely.

Secondly, comparatively, to astronauts, the robots will eventually become inexpensive since they require no training and will if eventually mass produced, become relatively cheap to manufacture. Cosmonauts require extensive training and are of course more expensive to fly into space and to maintain and keep alive once they are there.

The Russian space agency has stated that the Fedor program is part of a larger project to build a permanent base on the moon, mainly for the purposes of mineral extraction and will initially house 11 cosmonauts and several robots.

Given that the robot has been programmed to fire weapons, something currently not needed in space, the military applications of the project are also potentially huge Although Russia isn't the only country developing military robots. The United States, China, Japan and a handful of other countries are all developing similar robots capable of firing weapons, albeit most are keeping their progress under wraps for the time being.

VIDEO FOOTAGE OF FEDOR IN ACTION