I've never been comfortable with the use of the term "robot" to describe a radio controlled car (or plane, boat, whatever). Using a ruggedized R/C car to deliv

I've never been comfortable with the use of the term "robot" to describe a radio controlled car (or plane, boat, whatever). Using a ruggedized R/C car to deliver an explosive is no different from a police officer with a good throwing arm tossing a grenade (or whatever) at the attacker. In other words, the action is completely controlled and executed by a person, not the machine. Now, if this thing had autonomous "search and destroy" capabilities and the person's role was to identify the target area and approve the kill, the term "robot" would certainly apply. I don't like the association being created between robotics and killing. In this case a person was 100% in charge of killing the suspect. The machine was not operating autonomously. Just like the folks who attached a gun to a quadcopter. Where that thing went and when it pulled the trigger, save a malfunction, was 100% remotely controlled. Calling it a "drone" or "robot", which implies a level of machine-based decision making, would be wrong.