THEY'LL BE BACK; DARPA's robots founder in the desert, but their day will come.(News; Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency competition for designing robotic vehicles)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN The two-ton, V8-powered, four-wheel-drive fully autonomous robot swung forward out of the starting chute, turned directly to the crowd of people and paused menacingly, just 15 feet away, an array of space-age sensors staring in mute wonder at the crowd of squishy, nonmetallic people before it.

Or maybe it wasn't menacing. What was going through its little robot brain at that point, any-way? Destroy the humans? Hug the humans? Which way to the nearest Radio Shack? It lunged forward again as many of the humans, your narrator included, began plotting escape ...

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