Robotic avatars may replace humans on the battlefield in the near future, as the Kurchatov Institute has announced its plans to develop the "soldier of the future."
The Foundation for Advanced Research, initiated by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, will finance the project, Vedomosti reported Friday.
A representative of the foundation said that the project is not about creating a "fully equipped cyborg," but rather "providing a human the maximum possible withdrawal from the line of enemy fire and giving him control of the robotic devices fighting for him."
The project's implementation is set to take place after 2020.
On August 7, the foundation's board of trustees approved a three-year program comprised of eight projects, the most ambitious of which is the "soldier of the future."
Тhe foundation received 2.3 billion rubles ($70 million) from the federal budget this year to finance the projects, about 170 million ($5.2 million) of which is allocated to developing robot warriors.
In April, media reported that the Ministry of Defense asked St. Petersburg's Central Scientific Institute for Robotics and Technical Cybernetics to build a robot that could search for wounded soldiers.
Rogozin has said that he hopes FAR will become an analog to the American Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was instrumental in creating the Internet.
