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Aerial Robotics Competition

Posted by michael on from the buzz-bomb dept.

anphilip writes "The annual International Aerial Robotics Competition just wrapped up, and I thought while our teams waited for the results I'd let the folks at Slashdot know about it. At any rate there's a brief story here and the group website is here."

9 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. Army can't do it? by solive1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Mike Kennedy (from the article): "These kids are cutting edge. They're doing things the Army can't do yet." What information does he have that says that the Army can't do this yet? Surely the Army doesn't give away all its secrets to this guy.

  2. Whoa by cephyn · · Score: 4, Funny

    "It's a robot -- just a flying one," said senior Jessica Dooley, 22, of Phoenix, stepping mechanically like a robot and making "err, err, err" sounds.

    Wow. She sounds hot...

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    Moo.
    1. Re:Whoa by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Informative

      She is.

    2. Re:Whoa by cephyn · · Score: 4, Funny

      Once again, ability to make robot sound effects properly predicts good mating characteristics!

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      Moo.
  3. Robotic X-Prize by artlu · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Similar to having an X-Prize, there should be greater monetary rewards for robot evolution. Ie: a biped robot that can beat a human on a mile stretch, etc. Then, maybe we would see some quicker robot evolution!

    GroupShares Inc. - A Free and Interactive Stock Market Community

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    artlu.net
  4. Re:Acrobatic Robots by greymond · · Score: 3, Funny

    When they make Cherry 2000's is when most people will care.

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    Ave Molech Setting
  5. Attack Drones by Chagatai · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Someone recently sent a model plane over the Atlantic much in the same manner as these kids. I wonder if terrorists would develop something like this. Imagine, some guy in the Middle East builds forty or fifty of these aircraft, programs them with waypoints, and lets 'em loose. They recharge by day through solar energy and run off of batteries at night. A few days later, Washington DC is surrounded by these planes flying circles over the city en masse, at which point they do something nasty.

    Hey, Congressmen: No amount of legislation would stop this.

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    --Chag
  6. It's not just bureaucracy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    There are a lot of considerations the military has to deal with that don't apply to "normal" situations.

    The example of hiking gear is a good one. Sure you can sell all kinds of stuff to hikers who go out a couple of weekends a year... that's completely different from providing something to someone who is going to spend six months of every year in all kinds of outdoor environments from the desert to arctic/alpine climate. (Ask me how I know gear is used like this :-/ )

    When I was in the 82nd, sure my pack was a lot heavier that what the average hiker carries into Yosemite. However, it survived 45 jumps (two where the lowering cord failed to deploy and I rode it in and landed on it, hard), two trips to the Italian Alps in the dead of winter, visits to the Siani and Turkey in summer, and getting thrown into holes, piled under dozens of similar packs, and whacked around during a couple dozen miscellanous deployments. Try that with a $400 external-frame pack from your local sporting-goods store and see what you get :-)

    It may be that there are "secret" verisons of these in use (as another poster suggested) or there may be versions in R&D. But I'm willing to bet that ruggedizing things is (almost) as much a factor as the bureaucracy...

  7. Re:wtf is that? by Rorschach1 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "That pic is useless for determining hotness level."

    Dude... she's clearly female, and has a laptop. That's good enough for the /. crowd.