Automated Sentry Robots

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Posted by michael on Tuesday November 9, 2004 @07:18AM from the angry-cat dept.

jimbob5 writes "New Scientist reports that you can now buy your own automated Room Defender. 'Who would like this gift? Any child, or anyone who saw the director's cut of Aliens and dreamed of owning one of those automated sentries.'" The New Scientist gift guide looks pretty useful.

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Err.... by carlmenezes · 2004-11-09 07:25 · Score: 2, Informative

Quote from the customer reviews:

"Bedroom? Stuck it in me garden, and that pesky cat ain't come round no more!"

Phil, Harrogate

So now Phil doesn't have a cat in his garden, but he has to search in the bushes for the bullets and he likes that :)

Amazing.

--
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
You can make one too, off the shelf by Chairboy · 2004-11-09 08:00 · Score: 2, Informative

It's easy to make using off the shelf components, and you can build one that will actually track the objects.
Check out the CMUCAM: CMUcam vision sensors.
It can be hooked to servos and automatically track objects, plus the CMUcam2 can control multiple servos, so you could have it be a sentry without having to do any wacky wiring or microprocessing.
Re:Cameron's Vision... by dykofone · 2004-11-09 08:37 · Score: 2, Informative

Found a pic: http://aliens.valkiria.net/Pictures/bron/sentry-ek ran.jpg
You reminded me of 5th grade, staying up late to watch all three Alien movies and both Predator movies back to back with some friends(though I think we all fell asleep during Alien 3, and didn't make it to Predator 2, but no big losses there).
Re:Yeah... by Big_Breaker · 2004-11-09 09:18 · Score: 2, Informative

That is correct. In the director's cut the Marines (+ Ripley and Burk) watch nervously as the sentry's ammo ran down. The aliens stop attacking the sentries just as their ammo was nearly exhausted. Instead they breach the perimeter through the ductwork and come down from the ceiling. In the original version the Aliens don't confront any sentry guns and just find the ductwork as a way arround a series of welded doors.