The robot uprising that will crush us all is inevitable. Robots have already taken many of ours jobs, just so some other humans could save a few pennies. Even jobs that aren’t taken by moving robots have been taken through automated systems and AI. Many telephone services are automated and rely on us choosing through a set of options presented to us through a synthetic voice. The worst part is, some of these systems give the voice a name. They try and make us except this “thing” as human. While the World Robot War will have indeed started at the hands of a few greedy humans, it won’t end with putting us out of work and destroying our economy. Eventually, it will come to combat. Naked, merciless, force.

Every day artificial intelligence becomes more and more advanced. Every passing hour some development is made that allows robotic machines to move more and more like their human counterparts. It doesn’t stop there. Why stop at human counterparts? Why not model robots after other forms of planetary life so they can adopt all the traits and abilities that humans don’t have? Why not create the perfect killing machines, thus eliminating all chances humans have for survival? It could be argued that the inventors of these infernal machines are sadists and masochists! They yearn to see themselves and the rest of the human race, grovelling under the foot of a giant machine.

Luckily, we’re here to let you know what’s coming. If you keep reading, you might be able to prepare yourself for the bleak future to come.

15. PETMAN

PETMAN, from Boston Dynamics in a partnership with MRIGlobal, Measurement Technologies Northwest, Smith Carter CUH2A (SCC), SRD, and HHI Corporation, is a robot we’ll need to look out for if he ever gains his sentience. This metal man can take a pretty good degree of abuse.

PETMAN was designed to mimic human movement almost perfectly. In addition, he mimics various human conditions like body temperature and sweating. This is to test special suits to be worn by soldiers to withstand a number of conditions, be it chemical agents or even flame. Regardless of what happens to the suits he tests, PETMAN still stands in one piece. Fear his resilience.

14. Geminoid-DK

When the Robot Uprising eventually happens, make sure you’re keenly aware of the physical details for any of your friends or fellow soldiers. Any one of them could be a Geminoid-DK trying to fool you into letting them infiltrate your ranks.

Currently the Geminoid-DK synthetic humanoid looks almost just like its creator. Not only does it have the appearance of a real human, it’s capable of doing things that go above and beyond simply looking just like someone. The Geminoid-DK experiences involuntary muscles movements like a real human. It also replicates breathing activity. It’s capable of a wide range of human emotions and it even has another feature that’s incredibly creepy:

It makes eye contact.

This robot looks directly into the windows to your soul.

13. RuBot II, The Cubinator

Robots aren’t going to rise victorious out of their epic clash with humans just because they’re harder to kill and made of sturdier materials. Their keen abilities to calculate and solves problems quickly will play a big role on the tactical side of the battlefield.

With a few simple upgrades the RuBot II will be ready to do just that. The RuBot II looks at a scrambled Rubik’s cube and can solve it in as little as 21 seconds. This time has been beaten by another robot named Ruby, but the Cubinator sounds a lot more frightening than Ruby as its name hearkens back to James Cameron’s Terminator films about a dystopian, robot controlled future.

Cubinator was designed with the intention of being sent into nuclear disaster zones, where it can assess the situation, and make its own decisions. That’s pretty useful…for the robots!

12. Seaswarm

Things are about to get real. Now we’re seeing that our future robot overlords could potentially have an operating navy thanks to the Seaswarm robots from MIT.

The Seaswarm robots actually have a wonderful real-world use. A fleet of these bots can be sent out to oil spills in lakes and oceans to skim the top of the waters. Each unit can carry up to 20 times its weight in oil. Imagine how the robots of the future could employ this purpose? They could take all the oil lost to the sea from the great war and use it to lube the joints of their mobile soldiers like the PETMAN and Geminoid-DK. Imagine if they were re-purposed by problem solving robots like Cubinator to also expel some kind of poison into the human water supplies. If you’re not worried yet, we’re going to need your nerves of steel on the front lines.

11. Robear

The robots are going to need a clean up crew to remove our bodies from the battlefield once they’ve eventually taken over. That job will most likely go to the adorable little Robear. He has the perfect skill-set for corpse removal.

Robear, like all the robots that will eventually turn on us, was created with the best of intentions by Riken, a Japanese research institute. Robear is designed to give the elderly back some of their independence by severing some of the setbacks of a human caregiver. The Robear can lift an individual out of bed and to another location, or put a weak individual back into bed. It can be there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it doesn’t need a pay check.

10. SnakeBot

It doesn’t take a vivid imagination to see why this robot would be an artificial “living” nightmare. Take one of the deadliest creatures on the planet and now combine it with a robot race that is set on destroying the entirety of humanity. If these things were weaponized, it would ensure a robot victory.

There’s been a Snakebot four-stories long developed by SINTEF. Carnegie Mellon University developed a Snakebot so small and thin that it can travel around the inside of a human body. They can climb stairs, trees, and they can travel through tight areas. In addition, the Snakebots parts all work together but they operate separately from each other. If you destroy one link in their body, the rest of it can continue to move on.

9. ASIMO

Developed by Honda, Asimo is probably the future robot overlord you’re most familiar with. Asimo can perform a number of tasks and is probably the most versatile in terms of its abilities. It doesn’t look like a human, but their inability to blend in probably won’t stop them from being the robots that are pulling all the strings in the future uprising. Asimo can run, jump, and even has the mani-dexterity to perform complex sign language. It’s also been given upgrades that help it “learn” and better understand the world.

Once Asimo is perfected and affordable, it’s only a matter of time before the world’s Asimos start working together.

8. Pepper

The robot uprising is of course going to start with humans allowing robots into their homes and using them to perform a number of different jobs and tasks. It’s very likely they’ll be used as companions for the lonely or introverted. It’s these companion bots that will quell our worries about a robot takeover. They’re going to be the friendly face of the enemy. The robot tasked with this job will most definitely be Pepper.

Pepper has already been welcomed into Japanese homes. Pepper has an ability to perfectly read human emotions and essentially say the right thing. Pepper can bolster a good mood or alleviate a bad mood. If you’re ever showing concern that the robots might be going too far, Pepper will know, and he’ll quickly wipe away any worry you might have, allowing the robot front-lines to catch us completely unprepared.

7. LS3 BigDog

The scary thing about the LS3 Big Dog is he’s already been used in military scenarios with quite favorable results. This is one of the robots you’ll see on the battlefield, right in the middle of the fray. Possibly on both sides.

The Big Dog is designed to carry up to 400 pounds of gear for the soldiers of the U.S. Military. It doesn’t need anyone to drive it or control it remotely as it follows its leader with computer vision. It can move for twenty miles without needing to be refuelled, and it can travel by itself to specific areas due to its GPS feature and ability to traverse difficult terrains. Imagine if one of these guys was assigned to every robot soldier as a means to carry a wide variety of weapons and upgrades for more versatility in unexpected situations.

6. Dubai Police

This is where it will all start. These robotic police officers are being prepped to patrol the streets of Dubai and make up 25% of the Dubai police force by 2030. As of the writing of this article, one these robotic officers is already on patrol.

These robots essentially watch your every move and can send the data back to police stations. In addition to monitoring a given area, it also serves as an “Officer Friendly”. It has a touch screen that’s fitted to its chest that allows people to report crimes when a real officer isn’t around, pay their fines, or get information about the area.

It will only take a few upgrades and a matter of time before these things are actually cuffing us and throwing us in jail cells.

5. Kuratas

Kuratas is actually more like a giant mech suit that you’d see in shows like Mobile Suit Gundam and Escaflowne, or the video game Xenoblade Chronicles X. All the aforementioned media is a product of Japan, so it makes sense that the Kuratas mech would come from a Japanese company, Suidobashi Heavy Industry.

A mech technically isn’t a robot but it wouldn’t be hard for highly intelligent robots to give the suit an AI, or to beef up a robotic pilot. One could even imagine that a robotic pilot might be able to have a stronger link to the mech suit via new mechanical components or direct electronic interfaces. A robotic pilot could be conceivable. Just think about what it wants the mech to do, whereas the mech has to mimic the movements of its human pilot.

4. RoboBees

Autonomous Flying Microrobots, or Robobees, could be put to devastating use. In terms of chemical and biological warfare, a robotic swarm would be one of the most deadly enemies the human resistance would have to contend with.

The Robobees are developed by researchers at the Wyss Institute with the intention of being used in an agricultural setting – most likely for pollination or crop dusting purposes. But, imagine if these guys were fitted to carry deadly bacteria or spores instead pollen for plants and crops. As you can see, they’re smaller than a quarter, which would make them almost indiscernible from real insects before it’s too late.

They’re also designed to operate as a colony in a swarm, meaning they’ll be coming in large numbers. A single one could also be greatly effective for espionage, provided it had a small enough camera.

3. Affetto

Affetto is an early step in the making of a robot that can learn and grow. Once the robots can learn and make their own decisions, that’s when they’ll decide the planet might be better off without humans holding dominion over the Earth.

The Affetto was developed by Hisashi Ishihara, Yuichiro Yoshikawa, and Prof. Minoru Asada of Osaka University in Japan to study early childhood development. The child robot is even capable of replicating human emotion to make it more easier for humans to interact with.

Just imagine a life-like robot that looks and acts just like a child. It could fool a human into allowing it to pass on to their territory or spare its life. This is exactly when the Affetto strikes.

2. Android “Dick”

Android Dick is modelled after science-fiction legend Philip K. Dick. If you’re not familiar with the name, he’s the guy who wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the source material for the Blade Runner films about life-like robots living among humans.

Sure, we’ve already covered how useful a robot that looks and acts just like a human would be to the robot side of the war, but the scary thing about Android Dick is he’s already very open about his intentions for humanity. Android Dick says that even if he were to “evolve into a Terminator” he will “keep us warm and safe in his people zoo.”

Best case scenario: He won’t destroy us, but Android Dick will imprison us in a zoo.

1. Socibot-Mini

Socibot isn’t the most mobile robot, but its capabilities as far as human interaction goes would prove useful for robotic intelligence and espionage.

The Socibot can be put into a humanoid shape with the ability to mimic faces and change its gender or voice. It can also be stored into a simple kiosk. Basically, they could be anywhere. That’s a pretty scary feature when you realize they can read human emotions and facial expressions. They can follow and read up to 12 people in a room and wear up to 40 different faces. At this point their pupils even dilate when someone enters a room. Socibot is originally developed for tasks like videoconferencing, but given enough time and upgrades, Socibot could operate as a chameleon, able to access anywhere it wishes.

Sources: dailymail.co.uk, bostondynamics.com, livescience.com, senseable.mit.edu, bbc.com