Russia's newly established military robot design lab has finally gone into operation, Oleg Bochkarev, deputy head of Russia's governmental Military-Industrial Commission told ITAR TASS news agency. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin was the first to have announced plans to set up a new laboratory at the Degtyarev arms factory in Kovrov last year planning to attract private investors to experiment and create prototypes that could join the troops if passing tests.

According to Rogozin, the robots will save lives: "We have to conduct battles without any contact, so that our boys do not die, and for that it is necessary to use war robots," he said. The idea was backed by Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, who urged engineers to make robots combat ready by 2015-17, instead of initially scheduled 2020.

In 2012, Russia's Advanced Rsearch Foundation was created to deal with robots, space defense and supersonic technology.

This January Rogozin claimed the Foundation was working on a super sensitive Avatar-style robot which adjusts to human behavior and which humans can operate from inside. Rogozin, however, urged researchers to generate new ideas, rather than using already existing Western developments.

Source: Voice of Russia