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DARPA is funding the early development of technology they think will some day be useful to the military. Similar to how the DARPA Grand/Urban challenges helped plant the seed for fully autonomous ground vehicles.

So this specific robot is not meant to kill humans, but a robot in the future based on it's technology might. Currently the military has a large aversion lethal autonomous systems, so I don't think it's going to happen.

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Currently the military has a large aversion lethal autonomous systems

Humm... what about the drones?

The drones aren't autonomous - they are remote-piloted. Think of them like R/C aircraft... that kill. In any case, all "trigger pulling" is done by a human.

The military, as of yet, has had an aversion to robots that can decide to pull the trigger on their own.

Thanks for clarifying.

Their weapons aren't autonomous.

Only in the sense that lots of them get "flight pay" presently.

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