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USMC Shows Off New Toys
jonerik writes "And speaking of the future of unmanned combat, Wired today has this article on several new toys being developed for the U.S. Marine Corps. The Dragon Eye is a small remote-controlled airplane which can be disassembled and carried in a field pack. The Dragon Runner is a miniature camera-equipped wheeled truck about the size of a shoebox which can be sent into dangerous areas as a scout. The Dragon Warrior is a small unmanned helicopter which looks like a toilet seat with wings. Perhaps most intriguing is a device unofficially dubbed the RoboLobster, which skitters around on eight mechanical legs, detecting and disarming mines. Although the Dragon Eye is scheduled for deployment next year, the other three devices are still in the development stage."
Drive the goddamn thing around your backyard, with a .22 on it, and wait for groundhogs.... ELL OH ELL.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
A friend of mine actually built something exactly like the Dragon Runner a few months ago. He's a real big RC Car aficionado, so he had a bunch of different cars sitting around, and he wanted to do something more interesting with one of them. He got a couple of those X10 cameras, and mounted them on one of his cars, and had them broadcast back to a little battery powered TV that he carried around with him as he controlled the car. It had a range of .5 miles and could go full speed (40 MPH) for about 45 minutes before he needed to replace his batteries.
I should hope that the Marines could get something at least on par with something my 17 year old friend built in his spare time.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.