Here's your taste of future war this morning: iRobot, of Roomba and military PackBot renown, has gotten approval from military R&D; agency DARPA to construct prototype robots they're calling "LANdroids." Each tiny, tank-treaded robot will act as a node in a wireless network, capable of positioning themselves intelligently to fill holes in coverage areas in urban environments. The hope is to make them small and inexpensive enough to be essentially disposable.

Except for the limitation of being battery powered, I could almost see these working for homes, too. It'd be great to toss out a little robot who would wander around the house until it discovered where I most needed additional Wi-Fi coverage.

As for the pitiful people who have to fight our increasingly autonomous armies, they'll have dozens of tiny new targets to try and snipe. Time to work on EMP grenades, insurgents!

Press Release [Robot Stock News via BotJunkie]