In what can only be described as awesome, ReconRobotics has developed a robot which is used to fight pirates. That's actual pirates, which are almost like what you're thinking of but more modern and with better guns. The ReconScout Throwbot, a throwable robot which could not possibly have a better name, is a one-pound remote-controlled device equipped with a camera, which can be thrown on board a passing ship, and moves itself around and up metal walls using its magnetic wheels, to send back video footage and information about the size of pirate crew and how well-equipped they are, before pirate-fighting forces board the ship.
This article from Discover Magazine, which has a short video of the little dude in action, also says, "The Throwbot can take useful video even if it's pitch black below decks, using infrared illuminators. ReconRobotics is also developing a marsupial robot deployment system, which is exactly what it sounds like: a big robot that carries around the recon robots, then shoots them out with high precision when the time comes." Which is a shame, because I was seriously hoping they'd be deployed by ninjas riding unicorns.
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