Dr Brooks plans to take the technology further afield and open an office in the Middle East soon. The company already has offices in Huntsville, Alabama. Marathon robots are autonomous, using on-board software to react the way that combatants might behave. Credit:Sahlan Hayes Unlike other robotic targets, which are joystick-controlled, the Marathon robots are autonomous: the on-board software allows the robot to react the way that combatants might typically behave, using sensors to locate themselves and other targets while moving in and out of buildings on a live-fire all-terrain range. The on-board logic ensures that, if one robot is shot, the others will automatically scatter, providing a more realistic form of target practice. "The fundamental problem we address is that the first time soldiers fire live ammunition at a moving target is on combat," Dr Brooks said. "Without proper training, things go wrong and civilians get shot." A report in the Marine Corps Times quotes Captain Benjamin Brewster, projects officer for the Warfighting Laboratory's field testing branch at Quantico as saying: "The first day out here shooting, the hit ratio was below 50 per cent and it took 4.7 rounds to actually get a kill. Yesterday, we were down to 2.3 rounds."

Dr Brooks said a separate Army Research Institute project, which compared traditional training methods with robot training, found that 3½ times more personnel could be trained in the same period when robot targets were deployed. The US Marine Corps were among the early adopters of the robots, signing a $57 million deal in 2010. When the Marine Corps first deployed, the targets were based on Segways. However, that base unit has been replaced by Marathon's Australian-developed armour: a plated, four-wheel all-terrain base unit, topped by a plastic dummy. While the top parts of the targets may last for a couple of thousand rounds of live ammunition, Dr Brooks said the base of "every robot ever delivered is still in service".

He said the demand for robotics was "going ballistic", largely led by drone solutions. Marathon has a drone research project under way. However, Dr Brooks said his company would only do drones "very selectively" because it was a crowded space. Corporate interest in robotics and autonomous systems is also rising. The Boston Consulting Group is finalising a research project examining enterprise demand for robots, which will be published this year. The early indications are that growth in industrial robots will rise from about 2 per cent to 3 per cent a year to 10 per cent over the next decade.

By 2025, a quarter of all manufacturing activities will be handled by robots as organisations strive to boost productivity. Brooks said the company had "lots of ideas" about how the autonomous robots could be applied to other scenarios, but, at present, "robotic targets is the big theme". Marathon sells its robot targets to military organisations, particularly special force operations, or private organisations that on-sell to military and law enforcement agencies. The export of the devices is controlled by Australia's Defence Export Control Office, which has to sign off on every sale. Robot ethics Asked about the ethics of building robots that train soldiers how to kill people, Dr Brooks said his company's purpose was not to "make decisions about life and death".

"The soldiers make those decisions and hopefully they are better placed to make them after this training," he said. Dr Brooks did however acknowledge the rising concern about autonomous robots and the risks that they might pose, in particular the letter signed by 100 scientific and artificial intelligence luminaries such as Stephen Hawking, Tesla's Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, calling for a ban on "offensive autonomous weapons", which was presented at the recent International Joint Conference on artificial intelligence. He said he had not signed that petition, and knew nothing about it until it was presented at the conference. Marathon Targets' robots are designed purely for target practice. While Dr Brooks said the company was regularly asked to develop weapons-toting robots, the company had resisted. He said that weaponised robots had been displayed at the Robotics Rodeo held in Fort Benning last year but that he had "ethical concerns with that, and practical concerns".

Even mounting simulated weaponry would pose problems because the robots "would get shot a lot" and become severely damaged, he said. Instead, Marathon robot users can make use of machinegun simulations, which can be triggered as the robot moves around a training arena, enabling trainers and shooters to get an idea of whether they might have been wounded in the real world. Dr Brooks argued against weapons-toting robots, saying they currently lacked the "perception" of humans – making them, for example, unable to distinguish whether the person carrying a bundle was carrying a baby or was a suicide bomber. The company employs 30 people to design, build, sell and service the robots. It was established by three University of Sydney scientists from the Australian Centre for Field Robotics: Dr Brooks, Dr Tobias Kaupp​ and Dr Alex Makarenko​. Dr Brooks said it was a profitable venture and would be able to fund international expansion without taking on further investment.

Editor's note: the headline on this article was changed shortly after publication to better reflect the story.