Teddy BEAR for soldiers with owwees

War must be tough. From the frequent threat of bodily harm to finding a camel spider in your trousers to having to endure politicians renaming part of your dinner to "freedom fries", war is no cake-walk. Surprisingly, considering their recent infatuation with armed conflict, the U.S. government has given the green light to a project aimed at aiding soldiers in need.

Ensuring rooms at VA hospitals don't have mold all over them? Ah, not this time. Allocating adequate funds for the pensions of injured soldiers? Um, no. Immediate shipments of up-armored Humvees, body armor with a bonus of shortened tours? Seriously, stop asking.

Rather than any of the above, the U.S. military, long a black hole for financial resources, has added another "you've got to be joking" project. They've developed a prototype called the Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR), a 6-foot-tall robot that will be used to carry injured soldiers out of areas too dangerous for other soldiers to venture. In principal, this sounds like a fantastic idea. Then again, I saw the trailer for iRobot and if you get a bad batch of robot in a combat zone, you'll get precision RPG fire and fearless killing machines running amuck.

Furthermore, have a look at the image at right and more specifically, look at the #1 feature. That's what they feel is the MOST important piece of this massively technological project.

New Scientist magazine reports that the "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease.

Call my a cynic, but I imagine that hardened soldiers that carry automatic weapons, use high explosives, arrest people in perhaps the most dangerous environment on Earth and have just been shot/blown up/etc. MIGHT be more concerned about the robot getting them to a surgeon quickly and without dropping their ass on a mine. But hey, I've never been in a warzone; maybe a teddy is just the ticket.

Full story here.