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"It wouldn't require a lot of skill to make autonomous robot weapons."
Certainly not ones that are, in effect, small helicopter-like devices. These could be manufactured cheaply and be extremely deadly. The Soviets came up with poisons so strong a mere grain was enough to kill a man. Imagine a fleet of 5,000 sparrow sized helicopter robots equipped with poison darts and programmed to fire on any recognized human shape. It could be done today for a fraction of the cost of one stealth bomber.
The next step would be to miniaturize them to the size of mosquitoes, a brave new world of assassination awaits us.
Your theory assumes an endless supply of money. Only one group or nation has an endless supply of money, that being the US. OUrcurrency is not backed by silver or gold. It is backed by petro-dollars, which forces almost all nations to buy oil in dollars.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to poison our food and water?
Better yet, poison Budweiser and Coors.
Actually, my theory assumes that this fleet of tiny robots would be substantially cheaper to build than what we're already building so an endless supply of money wouldn't be required. And, they would be cheaper to build because we're already spending billions on individual aircraft. So, how many fist sized toy helicopters could you make for a billion dollars? Even assuming you were outfitting them with a kind of dart gun and face recognition software, I'm sure they would be a lot cheaper. And certainly cheaper than poisoning a country's or city's water or food supply which would necessitate an expensive cleanup when you moved in as a conquering army.
People hunting mini bots also leave infrastructure intact and non radioactive!
God, I can hear the salesmen now.
AmericanIdiot: "Wouldn't it be cheaper to poison our food and water?"
Yes, indeed, when it comes to killing others, the human imagination is limitless. I don't want to give any ideas to terrorists, but even I could come up with a few effective methods. However, why expand any efforts on finding new ways when there are tried and true methods, like the smallpox infected blankets given to Native tribes by the British.
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lo...
Sharkey said a small GPS-guided drone with autopilot could be made for about 250 pounds ($490).
This is true. The main thing needed is a cell phone with GPS, and camera.
This is much easier than you think. Program a R/C plan on a one way trip,a flying bxxb.
Here's a link on how to do it,Oh and they got a bunch of them.
http://diydrones.com/
GeoCrawler 2 (Cellphone autopilot)
Description: This platform was inspired by the realization that almost all the hardware you need for a functioning UAV is contained in the high-end cellphone in your pocket: GPS, camera, two-way long-distance wireless data communications, onboard computing and storage. Why do the tricky hardware integration when some cellphone maker has done it better themselves? By using a Windows Mobile phone, a UAV becomes a software, not a hardware, project. (You can see the phone strapped to the bottom of the plane in the image above; the sensor to the rear of it is for the FMA co-pilot.)
Features: Control the UAV (dynamic waypoints, camera commands, "come home", etc) by text message! Plane can return GPS-tagged imagery in real time by MMS (also stores it onboard for later downloading). Phone steers the rudder along GPS waypoint path, circling on command, and controls the throttle to maintain altitude. Separate FMA co-pilot stabilizer on the ailerons and elevator keeps the plane flying level.
* Airframe: Hobbico SuperStar (49" wingspan, $109)
* Autopilot: HP iPaq 6515 Window Mobile smartphone (GPS, 1.2 megapixel camera, discontinued but widely available for less than $200 on eBay.)
* Stabilization: FMA Direct FS8 Co-Pilot (infrared sensors, $115)
* Interface: Rentron serial-to-servo board ($77)
* iPaq to serial cable ($20)
* Custom software: VB.net code running on Windows
Mobile, using HP's GPS, Cameraphone and text message libraries. It's still a work in progress, but you can download a beta version that shows basic functionality, here. (Copy the CAB file to your iPaq and run it from the file manager to install the program. It requres the Rentron board and serial cable listed above to do anything useful.). The VB source code is here, so you can modify it for your own needs, including adapting it for Windows Mobile 5 and 6 and other GPS-enabled WM phones. Documentation coming soon.
BTW does this help explain why the Feds go nuts when someone is buying a large quantity of cell phones?