["General Purpose Infantry Unit"]

The General Purpose Infantry Unit (G.P.I.U.), informally known as the Grunt, is a humanoid combat robot used by the RPU.

As much as its much-vaunted advanced artificial intelligence routines that could allow it to operate autonomously, it was the devices' humanoid appearance that captured the public's imagination, sparking furious "for and against" arguments on both sides of the debate on the ethics of the use of such, if any, robots on the battlefield.

Due to legislation that prevented the deployment of a robotic weapon system with no human in the "kill loop" - the control process by which a decision is made to engage a target with lethal force - the product was initially a commercial failure; detractors claimed that delays caused by having a human monitor, command and call targets made the robots' reaction times too slow to be effective in a combat situation.

Specifications:

Weight: 0.2 tons
Length: 0.65 meters
Width: 0.65 meters
Height: 1.8 meters
Armour: Self-healing ceramic composite
Engine: Numerous high-efficiency/high-power joint actuators
Fuel capacity: 0.5 kW capacity super capacitor, backed up with a 2 gallon capacity flow battery
Operational range: 1440 km
Speed: 30 km/h on road, 18 km/h off-road