Is Anything Mightier Than This Sword? compares the new armed robot (really a tracked drone), the Sword, against flesh-and-blood soldiers. In addition to providing a stable firing platform, the high-tech Sword is oddly cheap:
The Sword has many advantages over a soldier. It might get shot up but will never come home to grieving parents in a flag-draped casket. Even in cold economic terms it could be better to lose a Sword considering that the cost of simply training a soldier to get him to his first duty station is an estimated $50,000. A sergeant might represent an investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars.