I assume that real battle robots would be remotely directed by a human operator somewhere, even if the technology developed to allow such things to operate themselves. I would really not like to see a computer decide whether that movement over there was an insurgent, or a kid running across the street after a ball.

That being said, if I was designing such war robots, I would go a long way out of my way to make them look alive, and as scary as possible. On the other hand, what if such a robot had to suddenly participate in a humanitarian action, which is common for our troops over there?

Maybe some kind of "morphing" appearance between scary and more benign? Kind of like "Buffy" vampires?

Johnny Five: friendly...