Real-life Robocops, robots armed with lethal weaponry and a programmed determination to eliminate foes, could become a key element in global counter-terrorist and military operations within 10 years, a US security expert said yesterday.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org in Virginia, was commenting on plans announced this week by a US firm, iRobot Corp, to arm its track-wheeled PackBot robot with a Taser X26 stun gun.

Until now, the PackBot, which looks like a small first-world-war tank, has been used for remote-controlled bomb disposal, dangerous search and surveillance missions. Now it will have the ability to "remotely engage, incapacitate and control dangerous suspects", iRobot said.

"The addition of Taser technologies on to iRobot platforms will provide a critical tool for Swat (Special weapons and tactics), law enforcement and military to handle a variety of dangerous scenarios," said Admiral Joe Dyer, president of iRobot Government & Industrial Robots.

"The new Taser-equipped robots will add a new ability to control dangerous suspects while keeping personnel, the suspect, and bystanders out of harm's way," a company statement said. The first robot of its kind "with an onboard, integrated Taser payload" would go on show next month in Chicago.

A spokesman for iRobot said the firm had no plans to equip its machines with lethal weaponry. Nor would the robots be able to decide on their own whether to open fire, without a human being "in the loop".

Mr Pike said development of robot cops, similar in purpose if not appearance to the crime-fighting characters in the Robocop and Terminator films, could be complete within 10 years and in use by police, prisons and military.

"For sure machines could be armed with guns, for sure they could be autonomous," Mr Pike said. "You already have UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) with an autopilot. You tell the autopilot where to go, what altitude and speed. Then it starts making its own judgments.

"So with the robot, you give it an instruction like: 'Clear the building - anybody pointing a weapon at you should be killed'. Robots are infinitely brave. They have no hesitation in killing and feel no remorse. And the great thing is you don't have to send condolence letters to their families if you put them in harm's way," Mr Pike said.

What would happen if police ordered "robot soldiers" to clear a building, not realising that a child was inside? "First of all, the child had better not be pointing a weapon at you," Mr Pike said.

"Second, people will think about that before they programme them. They will have criteria for that."