![Image](http://www.we-blog.jp/sea/taro/upload/taro1102034795.jpg)
Real-Life Battlebots
Motley Fool Take, December 2, 2004
....the purpose of building all these "buckets of bolts" is to save the lives of American soldiers, who will remotely control the machines from a safe distance. Incidentally, the remote control angle also plays to a strength almost unique to the American soldier -- the likelihood that he or she has been raised on a steady diet of first-person shooter video games, courtesy of Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox.
Sure, other countries -- Japan, for instance -- excel at manufacturing little pacifist Honda ASIMO robots that walk around independently and hurt nary a fly. But here in the U.S. of A., we like our robots armed to the teeth and joystick-compatible, thank you very much.