Here is the real answer. You can annihilate the living hell out of somewhere with drones, missiles, nukes. But unless you have actual boots on the ground defending the position you’re in, that is not claimed territory.
Humanoid robots controlled by humans or AI, can defend territory until human troops secure an area and setup defenses.
Small ground drone on fiber optics that carry an antitank mine or a bomb can open doors alright. Also various artillery systems work great against static targets.
Objects are carried by UGVs, they can carry 200-300 kilograms while being pretty small, small UGVs can carry up to 100 kilos with size of ~1m in every dimension. Unless you can explain to a very expensive and smart robot what you need to rotate and where and how to operate tools given, you’ll need a very competent pilot for these robots which with high probability would still be worse than dumbest of humans because they lack agility and require a lot of supportive infra to operate. Rich nations probably would try to make humanoid robots (like they did with robodogs) with questionable success.
DEPLOY THE TREBEUCHET. Maybe Einstein was correct to say no matter what ww3 will be fought with, ww4 will be sticks n stones.
The real answer is drones currently. Small, agile, cheap. What advantage does a humanoid robot have over drones?
Another revenue stream for the grift economy.
Here is the real answer. You can annihilate the living hell out of somewhere with drones, missiles, nukes. But unless you have actual boots on the ground defending the position you’re in, that is not claimed territory.
Humanoid robots controlled by humans or AI, can defend territory until human troops secure an area and setup defenses.
Now let’s get going with that EMP!!!
There’s no reason that violent control needs to take a humanoid shape.
The empire can control people by murdering them with drones much more easily than murdering with “humanoids”.
Opening doors for example currently drones are very good at open field warfare but have problems with for example bunkers
I’m pretty sure that a robot on wheels can open a door as easily as a robot on legs.
Small ground drone on fiber optics that carry an antitank mine or a bomb can open doors alright. Also various artillery systems work great against static targets.
Objects are carried by UGVs, they can carry 200-300 kilograms while being pretty small, small UGVs can carry up to 100 kilos with size of ~1m in every dimension. Unless you can explain to a very expensive and smart robot what you need to rotate and where and how to operate tools given, you’ll need a very competent pilot for these robots which with high probability would still be worse than dumbest of humans because they lack agility and require a lot of supportive infra to operate. Rich nations probably would try to make humanoid robots (like they did with robodogs) with questionable success.