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So how many are there out there? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-12-02 21:16 · Score: 0 · on Military Robots Get Machine Guns

Has anyone figured out how many war robots or near war robots there are now? I've found PackBot, OFRO, Rotundus and MDARS. Do you Slashdotters know of any more companies?

Too bad this is all BS by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-06 13:21 · Score: 0 · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

the packbot does not carry shotguns. the article is just trying to scare people. i'm all for the US pulling out of Iraq and i sure as hell didn't vote for bush, but that doesn't mean people should use the same scare tatics as bush to get people against the war in Iraq.

Re:Is there a REAL article on this somewhere? by gujo-odori · 2004-11-06 11:35 · Score: 1 · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

Detailed information is kind of hard to find, and yes, the link could most charitably be called an opinion piece. It would more accurately be called a raving, America-hating pile of rubbish. It contains no facts, no figures, no proof, nor any links to those things.

That said, some actual information about the Packbot is available. First, from the company website. Near the end of the page, we learn that it runs .

Here is info on the Pacbot EOD, which sounds like the most likely model to carry a shotgun, although no mention is made of that anywhere on the packbot site.

Here is an army.mil article that mentions in passing that " In combat, the PackBot would be equipped with a pump-action shotgun system able to recycle itself and fire remotely," however, it does not state that such a system is currently available on the Packbot. So far, I have been able to neither confirm nor disprove that a shotgun is available now.

I can, however, confirm that the smear piece at newstarget.com contains no substance whatsover, it's just an anti-American rant. If you want information about Packbots you'll have to google it; you'll find none at newstarget.com.

Now for my own opinion piece.

As others have noted before me, there is no difference between a Packbot with a shotgun and a Predator with a Hellfire missile on board. Neither are robots; both are remotely operated vehicles. One operates in the air, the other on the ground.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

Re:Is there a REAL article on this somewhere? by gujo-odori · 2004-11-06 11:35 · Score: 1 · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

Detailed information is kind of hard to find, and yes, the link could most charitably be called an opinion piece. It would more accurately be called a raving, America-hating pile of rubbish. It contains no facts, no figures, no proof, nor any links to those things.

That said, some actual information about the Packbot is available. First, from the company website. Near the end of the page, we learn that it runs .

Here is info on the Pacbot EOD, which sounds like the most likely model to carry a shotgun, although no mention is made of that anywhere on the packbot site.

Here is an army.mil article that mentions in passing that " In combat, the PackBot would be equipped with a pump-action shotgun system able to recycle itself and fire remotely," however, it does not state that such a system is currently available on the Packbot. So far, I have been able to neither confirm nor disprove that a shotgun is available now.

I can, however, confirm that the smear piece at newstarget.com contains no substance whatsover, it's just an anti-American rant. If you want information about Packbots you'll have to google it; you'll find none at newstarget.com.

Now for my own opinion piece.

As others have noted before me, there is no difference between a Packbot with a shotgun and a Predator with a Hellfire missile on board. Neither are robots; both are remotely operated vehicles. One operates in the air, the other on the ground.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along.

BSOD? Not exactly... by StupidKatz · 2004-11-06 07:27 · Score: 1 · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

If it dies, it would be a kernel panic*. This thing actually does run Linux.

* This assumes it dies due to some sort of software mangling and not from a lead slug to the CPU or by rolling over an improvised explosive device.

running on Linux! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-11-06 06:13 · Score: 0 · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

Look
It is liux powered

With such a tough, mobile, easily operated platform, people took notice. New projects were funded to create arms, fiber-optic spoolers, heads, sniper detection, and a host of other payloads for the PackBot. iRobot's Aware(TM) operating system, running on Linux, allows our developers to add new functionality, add behaviors that reduce the load on the operators, and add new payloads. PackBot will continue to gain new capabilities and its original modular, expandable design is proving a great value for the armed services.

Other articles by thedillybar · 2004-11-06 05:55 · Score: 4, Informative · on US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns

Here are two more older articles with more pictures. These don't mention shotguns...

Re:Good robot. by Prof.Phreak · 2004-06-25 13:55 · Score: 1 · on A Piece-By-Piece Guide to the Most Advanced Bots

Heh. I was just thinking exactly that.

From the packbot products page it seems all they got are military appliations.

I think the situation will get much worse before it gets better...

Re:When you're a commodity-oriented company... by ron_ivi · 2004-05-24 05:01 · Score: 4, Insightful · on Innovators vs Copiers: HP vs Dell

"The problem you describe, however, was one of the issues faced in the 1930s. Clothes washers and dryers in particular, had been in high demand."

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Dell's real observation is that computers (at least PCs) aren't a high-tech industry anymore.

Howerver, surely Dell's "The days of engineering-led technology companies are coming to an end" guideline is not at all the case for companies that are still in a high tech sector. One of the carbon-nanotube companies may very well replace Intel in post-silicon computing. One of the robotics companies may replace much of the military. Surely these are "engineering led".

But in their market, I must agree with Dell that I don't see a "engineering-lead" Wintel-box company in the near future.

Imagine if this got hacked by crem_d_genes · 2004-04-17 21:23 · Score: 1 · on Wi-Fi Security Robots?

Not wi-fi yet - but can that be far off?

Loss of robot in Iraq from iRobot

Re:seems like an easy project by EinarH · 2003-08-11 13:48 · Score: 5, Interesting · on Roomba Competitor Slightly Lacking

soo... who's going to be the first to get linux running on it?

For all that we know it could allready be running Linux.

iRobot also makes the PackBot, a unmanned robust robot for reconnaissance operations in urban terrain.
The robot is developed for the US Military, its DARPA founded, and it runs Linux.

More info here

Through the Tactical Mobile Robotics Program (TMR), the PackBot mobile robot got a new rugged hardware housing that supported significantly more substantial electronics. In fact, the new processor and motherboard booted a Linux kernel in under 12 seconds - just turn on and go! With such substantial computing on-board, the first robot operating system AWARE(TM) was born.

Personally I find this far more interesting than this "sweeper".