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.

Comments

Re:Two loopholes

[capt.Hij]

I read that too and thought it was odd that none of the weapons mentioned, ak-47, m-16, pistols, are weapons that snipers use. An M-16 has an effective range of 300-400 meters or so. Snipers are capable of sitting 1000 meters out and hitting their target. The sound of a weapon discharge at that distance is very faint.

Also, this is picking nits... but... Snipers use smokeless powder. They work very hard at not being seen.

Loopholes?

[Chuck Chunder]

I hate it when people point out the blindingly obvious limitations of something as if they are some devastating flaws that render it useless.

The sniper might run away? Wow such insight!

In reality encouraging snipers to run away is still going to be a win on the battlefield. Presumably most snipers hole up in a reasonably secure, hidden vantage point and remain there. If a technology makes that unfeasible then you've gone a long way to decreasing their effectiveness as their initial tactical advantage is neutralised on their first shot. A sniper who's legging it isn't shooting at you and if you have a camera automatically pointing in his direction then tracking him is a possibility.