Eventually, wars will be fought between robots owned by different countries, with soldiers sitting safely away from action holding remote controls. The latest step towards that future is with new chemical-sniffing robots that are currently being prepared for duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The CUGV ("Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Unmanned Ground Vehicle") detects "ammonia, chlorine, carbon monoxide, oxygen levels, lower explosive limits, volatile organic compounds, gamma radiation rate and dose rate, temperature and humidity," allowing it to go to hazardous sites that human soldiers would need to don suits for. It'll allow them to stay out of harms way for as long as possible while the bots check out the scene and report back. The more time people are out of harms way the better, obviously, so these are some robots we can get behind.

Via Danger Room