In Afghanistan, a new robosoldier goes to war

But for all their promise, unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have their drawbacks. The Predator has trouble "seeing" the ground in less-than-ideal weather conditions, and the $3.2 million machine also has a nasty habit of plummeting to earth when it's not supposed to. The Global Hawk has had an even more dubious track record. Two of the $40.6 million aircraft have crashed since January, and the fleet has been grounded pending an investigation.

Ground-based robots have not yet proven that they can do what's expected of them, but neither have they suffered any spectacular failures.

Fester's first military field test is taking place in Narizah, near the Pakistani border. The machine is helping a battalion of the 101st Airborne Division search for Saif Rahman Mansour, an Al Qaeda operative and one of the most wanted men in Afghanistan. A soldier with an M-4 rifle leads the way, while Staff Sergeant John Petree plods along, the robot's two green plastic treads bulging from the top of his rucksack. "Fester could be lighter," suggests Petree.

Fester, a sibling in an Addams family of identical robots being tested in Afghanistan – including Morticia, Wednesday, Thing, and Pugsley – weighs 40 pounds. "I feel like Lurch," Petree says. "But saving a soldier's life is what this is all about," he adds. "I put this 'bot in a cave, it gets blown all to pieces, I don't care."

At $40,000 a pop, robots like Fester may seem expensive, but the price tag is modest if the machine can prevent a soldier from being killed in action.

The arrival of robots on the ground in Afghanistan is one of the fruits of the Tactical Mobile Robotics Program, a five-year, $50 million Pentagon effort to develop machines capable of carrying out dangerous tasks so that soldiers won't have to.

Jette, who holds a PhD in solid-state physics from MIT, has woven together robot technology with a wireless local area network and an 800mhz Pentium 3 processor that can make the error corrections required to talk to the robot while it's sending back video – a tricky proposition, especially during combat.

But Col. Jette, the deputy for operations at the Objective Force Task Force – charged with a broad mandate of revolutionizing the battlefield – acknowledges that "the robots can reduce, but not eliminate, the threats to humans."

Plans for upgrading the PackBot include a camera-mounted swivel arm to elevate its poodle's-eye view, low-frequency radio relays that will enhance its navigational abilities in the twists and turns of caverns, and offensive systems – a grenade launcher, perhaps, or twin mounted semi-automatic shotguns.

Fester wasn't able to track down Mansour, but Col. Patrick Fetterman, the battalion commander charged with carrying out tactical sweeps in Narizah, was glad to have the machine along. "I'm glad they're testing them," he says. "They could save lives."

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