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Robots are ushering in an age of casual war

Unmanned, autonomous and robotic technologies are making warfare too convenient.

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The lack of a human presence might make people controlling unmanned vehicles trigger happy.

The lack of a human presence might make people controlling unmanned vehicles trigger happy.

PHOTO: EPA

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Picture this: You are looking out of the window of a turboprop passenger aircraft heading from Taipei to Kinmen. And through your porthole, the dolphin-like airframe of an MQ-9B SeaGuardian military drone comes into view, flying along the same corridor.

The sensors of the unmanned aircraft are designed to detect and monitor oncoming and following aircraft, and weave out of the way in time – through cloud, fog, mist or whatever obstacles there might be in the sky that impedes normal navigation. 

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