... not to have a photo of this on your t-shirt

It'd be more useful in Afghanistan, where there's no man power to hold a compound after it's been taken, and so the tele-ban pop back in after everyone's left to make sure there are no TV's left behind.

Just leave a few of these puppies behind and pop a cap in their bearded asses from a safe distance.

BTW Wouldn't it be more useful without the tracks? Just stick it on the roof of your mud hut and plug away at the bad guys in safety and comfort...

Build one with my RepRap? Are the plans out yet?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/06/04/reprap_machine/

How? A rear camera might have been useful.

You just know your going to get those pesky terrorists sneaking up behind it and sticking chewing gum over the lens....

and it will be crying "INPUT!"

Should be established as a War Crime.

This is an example of the sort of thing we shouldn't allow governments (or their subcontractors) to do. The fact that we have to kill people from time to time is a regrettable necessity in the real world. Automating the process should be considered a war crime. There must ALWAYS be a human in the loop, making the final decision to pull the trigger. All other roads lead to "Terminator" technology.

However, a human can DUCK.

I don't see even an Arnie-level neck on this beatsie.

that is to say, a "Contrived Marketing Acronym"

If one of these could be controlled over the internet by monkeys.. (thx Lewis)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/30/monkey_brain_robot_weblink_boffin_race/

Where at Walter Hopkins they prepare the autonomous control unit.

Why the Afghans don't have staircases.

How much armour you need to stop a bullet from the 14.5mm KPV machinegun.

And why the cute anime cat-girl can fire the 14.5 mm PTRS without embarrassing road-rash.

for "COntrived Marketing Acronym".

Also used to describe the mental state of the marketing dept after MAARS finds out what it's being called.

- Any guesses as to the name of the next one?

a water ballon filled with paint... lob it at the thing - instant disablement as the camera cant see...

Erm, yes, "survivability" is a valid word. I'm not sure why you'd think otherwise? It's hardly a strange enough word to even be seen as a quirk of the language.

As for people suggesting all you need to do is attack the camera with a paint bomb or whatever, well, the only thing I can really say about that is WTF.

People really believe hitting the camera of something firing at you is an easy task? AK-47s, the standard weapon of insurgencies all round the world aren't accurate weapons by any measure so certainly the majority of opponents aren't going to be able to hit it with anything other than a severe lucky hit. Of course some of them do have better, more accurate weapons but really, what's the chance of them being in the right place at the right time to be able to hit the camera without getting blown to pieces first?

If the camera allows different vision modes also like IR and so forth it's worth pointing out that paint wont exactly help.

Flanking/attacking from above is the only real option again something like this. It's not something you're going to go head to head with because whilst normal soldiers have to stay behind cover or die whilst trying to pop their head out to take the odd shot, this thing can push forward against the enemy, if it gets hit it'll either carry on or stop in it's tracks. Either way it can do what most soldiers do more effectively and without risk to the soldiers lives and that's call in air support against entrenched enemies.

Most likely it'll be used to provide backup to soldiers, it'll move first into dangerous areas, it'll be able to pop it's head out and fight where pinned down soldiers can't in ambush situations and so on.

How's it powered?

I agree that shooting out the camera requres a level of skill and opportunity you're not likely to be given the field. But a bucket of paint on a string would do the job, and unlike digging spike pits or planting landmines, it wouldn't do you a lot of harm if it wen't off while you're setting it up.

And unless we set up a new UN ban on selling Dulux to terrorist regimes, raw materials are going to be cheap and plentiful. Of course, it'll lead to an arms race with special pigment removing wipers being countered by the use of big sheets which can be dealt with by robotic scissors which you can blunt with a rock which can be wrapped in paper which can be cut with...

"a loudspeaker for shouting at non-compliant humans"

I can only presume that a loud metallic "You have twenty seconds to comply" has already been tested out, and translated into arabic.

Will their be an option to Pump Up The Volume?

Hm. .. I was thinking precisely that. So now they will have Zevo's "videogame wars"!!!

Oooh nice .. Toys, Terminator and Short Circuit references!!! Ok, the thing actually looks more like the product of an HK/Johnny 5 breeding project more than a Transformer.