French army hopes for combat-ready robots by 2040

From the article

France’s armed forces are on schedule to develop battle-ready robots by 2040, according to participants in a test bringing together the military with engineers, researchers and defense contractors.

“We hope to have something fairly evolved within three years, with the first ground [robot](https://techxplore.com/tags/robot/) capabilities ready to equip our forces,” said the army’s commander of future combat, General Bruno Baratz.

At the recent [competition](https://techxplore.com/tags/competition/) event over several weeks—the third such exercise since the armed forces set the 2040 target four years ago—robots fitted with legs, wheels, and treads navigated obstacles and evaded traps at a base west of Paris to [test](https://techxplore.com/tags/test/) their ability to hold ground against enemy forces.