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Robots for Air Force Protection
Roland Piquepaille writes "During a demonstration held in San Antonio on August 6, twelve robots intended to protect bases and people were shown to Air Force security directors and to 230 other security professionals. In "Robots display force-protection prowess," Air Force Link tells us the story. "Demonstrations included one robot that crawled up walls and across ceilings, another that clambered over rocks with six rotating legs and a third that wriggled like a snake through a pipe." This summary contains more details, including photos of the "Wall Crawler" climbing a wall and of Hexapod, a robot with six rotating legs walking over a pile of rocks."
This is really scary. They're just begging Skynet to take over! Actually, methinks the military boys saw too many Terminator movies...
More seriously, if the military becomes heavily dependant on this kind of thing, in the near future, I can envisage being an unlicensed ter^H^H^H hacker becoming a crime punishible by an indefinite term in Guantanamo Bay.
/obligatory everything is scary post.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
Shouldn't a robot be described as some mechanical device that's autonomous or otherwise self-guided?
These "robots" all seem to be remote-controlled, making them expensive RC toys you'll find in 5 years at Radio Scrap.