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Army Eyes Anti-Sniper Robot
Hiawatha writes "iRobot has teamed up with Boston University to create a robot that can spot enemy snipers on a battlefield. Before the smoke of the shot clears away, the REDOWL robot should have the shooter in its sights." iRobot is the same company that brought you the popular Roomba robotic vacuum.
... as long as there are couches for the anti-sniper robots to go hide under when they run out of juice and get lost looking for their docking units.
After shooting the sniper, the robot proceeds to vacuum the battlefield.
I sure hope it's better than the Roomba at its job... a friend of mine had one of those a year or two ago. It always managed to get itself stuck behind shoes, and didn't even do that good of a job vacuuming the floor.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Getting pwn3d by a .50cal through a wall may not qualify as wallhacking, but still... aimbots vs. campers.
War may never have been fun, but remember the good old days, when it was supposed to be? :)
"I think I saw that movie, the Robots won".
**insert favorite profound quotation here**
Ah, but snipers don't work that way.
First, shoot the point-man in the belly and a long, slow, agonizing death happens. Other members of the unit will try to save their guy. The sniper then picks them off one-by-one, safe in his hidey-hole.
Life sucks, but death doesn't put out at all. -- Thomas J. Kopp
How is this roomba going to fit the dead sniper in the tiny little vacuum cleaner bag?
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
It will be hard to find snipers that are willing to die after that one shot.
a sniper needs to use 1 shot at a time.
those time will probably be far apart, one this week, one next month, one next hour, etc. so it kind of ruins the snipers schedule if they are dead.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
If it's from the makers of roomba, all the sniper has to do is stand in a corner and that bot will never be able to get him.
I can just imagine the way that the robot alerts the soldiers with it:
We Are The Targeting Robots
We Are Here To Protect You
The Sniper Is Detected
The Sniper Has Gone Down The Stairs
***
We Are The Targeting Robots
Grandpa Is Detected
Grandpa Is Detected At The Bottom Of The Stairs
I Am Here To Protect You
I Will Direct Fire On Top Of Grandpa
"'If one must live then one must die.' - oh, the truth must be funnier than this..." -- MammÃt
[...] ground troops will find it hard to spot even at very close range.
[...] our research department is currently engaged in the testing of a 100-mile C3 for the Turtle. The thrust of this research is towards the development of an Extended-Range Turtle II. While this does result in a shorter tooth-to-tail ratio, we feel it could significantly enhance the battlefield capabilities of Turtle installations.
3. Installation Cost
The Terrapin Turtle is designed for installation at no cost by children and elementary school teachers. We feel that military installation cost should be under $10,000/unit.
4. Annual Cost of expendable supplies and spares per unit.
Ball-point Pen refills $0.59(one spare included)
In the rugged terrain of the battlefield, under rigorous load conditions, it may be necessary to occasinally replace the Turtle Tires. Due to fluctuations in the world rubber market, quotation of exact prices is not possible.
I love it.
Wow, a robot that detects snipers after they've fired their first shot.
Maybe they could use this technology in other applications, like detecting suicide bombers from the sound of the blasting cap that sets off the dynamite. Or maybe a robot that catches serial killers by counting the victims -- once they reach eight it sets off an alarm.
The only acceptable defense of scientific results is to say that they were the product of the Scientific Method.
Maybe they could just merge the roomba and the Sniper bot and create the "iSoomba", a sniper robot that efficiently cleans up the dead body when it's done killing!
... this kind of thing ruined Counterstrike.
Ahh, you um work for iRobot?
Cause you sound like your trying to setup for the obvious answer...
"Buy two."
I'd hate to be standing on the battlefield having a calm smoke and accidentally drop my plank.
. . . eBay has expressed interest in the technology for as yet unspecified applications.
First rule of government contracting:
Why build one when you can build two at twice the price?
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
The perps aren't sniping anymore, they're blowing themselves apart with dynamite.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
"The sniper might run away? Wow such insight!"
What's really irritating about that dude's post is that he hasn't thought about what it'd be like in a situation like that. Humans can't see where the bullets came from. The best they can do is make an assumption about where the shot came from based on where the bullet struck. In this case, shots fired, everybody ducks, Robot sits there looking in the direction of where the shot came from. Even if the robot doesn't cap the camping faggot, they know where the dude was and they can quickly get out of his way or open fire into the second story windows of the building it came from.
This story could be tragic or have a happy ending, either way, it's a fair sight better than everybody looking around going "Where'd that come from?!" until the second shot rings out.
"Derp de derp."
I hope it's as good as the bots in UT2K4--those things kick my ass when you crank them up!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Both of you are missing something:
1. place two auto-firing REDOWLs in the street.
2. make one of them fire.
3. sit back and enjoy.
The real danger comes 20 years after these get put into production when one runs for governor of California.
iRobot is the same company that brought you the popular Roomba robotic vacuum.
Great. This is how it starts, people. First they make household robots. Then they make sniper-spotters for the military. Pretty soon you've got a Cylon rebellion on your hands. Then the Cylons go away for 50 years, return as human cyborgs, and begin having wild sex with your brilliant computer science guys.
Hey, maybe those Roomba guys are just