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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."
These new gadgets are all well and good, just don't let them be outside during a thunder storm.
NMG
Now we just need to get the rabbit/human hybrid to be for Air Force Protection. Then the aliens will have to give in!
So when do the bolts of lightning cause the robots to become adorible artificially intelligent friendly meddling do gooders?
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
But I had to get rid of it, kept shitting on guests.
paintball
I saw a documentary on this subject back in the '80s. As I recall, the all-terrain robots were quite impressive, but subject to major, non-reversable programming glitches when subjected to large electro-magnetic fields (such as lightning strikes).
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
Cool stuff, but I think these would be much more intimidating to potential attackers (check out the videos). :)
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
Watch your backs, folks!
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's You!!
Cats: How are you gentlemen!!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Captain: You'll have to get through my team of Aibos first!!!
On August 6th, 2003 at Lackland AFB, SkyNet became self aware.
On October 7th, 2003 they elected a Terminator to lead them.
October 8th, 2003. Judgement day.
We must build and maintain those robots.
I for one welcome our new robot masters.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
Robots to defend our military bases, what could possibly go wrong...
These robots look rather cool, but it seems to me that it would be easy to interrupt the radio transmitter controlling these robots. Isn't there a better way to control them (either automate them, or something?)
My Sig Beat up your Honor Roll Sig
Ben Jabituya: I am standing here beside myself.
So, if someone were to fight one of the robots and break it, would it be a DMCA violation as well as a terrorist act?
SAILING MISHAP
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.
One of the articles linked talked about people currently buying these things:
People have bought it just the way it is for things like inspecting the fuselage of an aircraft," Wiedeman said.
We are one step closer to having R2D2! I wonder if the robots can crawl around while the plane is in flight? (Probably not, based on the specs given). Anyway, I think this is pretty interesting. Using these on a space shuttle might not be a bad idea, ie- crawling around outside and inspecting things before take off. And later- making external in-flight repairs...
I don't think SCO is in the market for robotics...
CowsAnonymous: We're here to help moo.
don't kill people, ...oh wait. They do.
Never mind.
The hexapod robot is very likely the one commonly
called RHex. It was basically designed after a
cockroach. You can find a lot more videos of it
on the net. Its performance is truly impressive.
And the best thing: The software for RHex is hosted
on sourceforge!
Sarge: Soldier, we've gotten orders to attack. Prepare battlefleet 5 and get ready to strike on my signal.
Soldier: Sarge, we gotta problem...
Sarge: "Problem", soldier? Whatd'ya mean "we gotta problem"?
Soldier: the bots, Sarge. They're all upgrading. Gonna take at least an hour, then we have to test them all again. Last virus was a bitch, they were all singing "My Way" a capella together...
Sarge: yeah, I heard. Those slimy bastards... it was terrible...
Soldier: anyhow, this new patch is gonna block all those music viruses.
Sarge: OK, do what you have to. But what about the enemy?
Soldier: Oh, no problem. We hit them with TZ/21, it's the virus that makes their 'bots quote random Nietsche, with Bob Hope delivery...
Sarge: poor bastards... poor bastards...
Soldier: yeah, war sucks. So, game of Doom/6?
Sarge: yeah, why not... (don VR helmets, zapping noises)
Ceci n'est pas une signature
If you can't figure it out from the picture, the idea is that rather than the traditional (biologically inspired) multi-jointed, multi-DOF leg design, a curved and somewhat flexible leg is just mounted directly to the motor shaft, which spins it like a wheel. The result is a robot that can navigate rough terrain with the same competence as its biologically inspired counterpart, but using much simpler control software and, more significantly, requiring much less mechanical complexity, which makes for a much more robust design. Very cool stuff.
Roving Web-Teleoperated Robot
DO NOT point a gun at them when demonstrating their effectiveness to a large group of senior executives.
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
And here are the links for RHex: /. )
( easy to remember, easy to
RHex project home
RHex software on sourceforge
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.
So, If someone is jamming the control frequency you just tell the real live human sky cops who have authority to use lethal force to wake up and go drive the perimeter road looking for someone jumping the fence. Plus if they are using even the 1980's SINCGARS radio technology the signal will be hard to jam and the jamming will be easy to triangulate back to a source. They are more likely to be using one of the newer frequency agile radio technologies that are even more resistant to jamming. They probably have provision for connecting a landline data link to robots that are 'standing watch' and only move through a limited area mitigating the man in the middle attack vulnerability. The robots that climb on walls and ceilings look like they are intended for use to scout an interior area for intruders. They may be semi-autonomous and only transmit back the base station if they spot something. Given the state of machine object recognition there will have to be an operator evaluating the senor data from this type of stuff for a long time to come.
Military guy: Will he kill me if I stop?
Ben: Who is to say?
Military guy: Will he kill me if I don't stop?
Ben: Again I am shrugging.
Number 5: Many fragments. Some large, some small.