Slashdot Mirror
Another Robotic Vehicle to Help Soldiers
Roland Piquepaille writes "There are many teams of U.S. scientists working on robots able to find improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Iraq before they can kill American soldiers. Today, let's look at an effort going on at Florida State University (FSU) to build unmanned ground vehicles that could save soldiers' lives. The researchers are creating complex algorithms to control these robots who will have to integrate many different factors such as the type of ground surface or obstacles that might block the vehicle's path. Some of these robots, which also could be used for civilian missions, are currently being tested at FSU. Read more for additional references and pictures of these robots which will have to navigate among dense obstacles."
No, robotics is good for warfare and humanity in general. Most of the bad things that happen in war happen because humans really don't like to die. If you are marching along as a soldier in Iraq, and suddenly you start taking fire from a building, how do you handle it? Right now you call in heavy fire support and simply flatten the building or riddle it full of holes. If you had robots, you might one day be able to send a robot in that goes into the building and incapacitates every armed person in the building without flattening the entire building and killing civilians. Instead of soldiers going nuts from being constantly shot at and lining up civilians to be shot, soldiers can work inside a well protected building with A/C controlling robots.
There WILL be war now and in the future. The question is what we can do about it. The Western world sat by and watched the genocide in Rwanda without acting because war is hard. No one wanted to go in guns blazing into an African nation. Hell, the last time we tried that was Somalia in a vain attempt to deliver food aid. We probably killed more people in self defense in Somalia then we saved by delivering food.
Imagine if we didn't have to put up with this shit. Imagine if stopping a genocide was as simple sending in a robot army that has no concern for its own safety that captures violent people and brings them to prison. Imagine a robot army whose overriding priority is to not kill civilians. Imagine the good that could be done if someone could drop an army in Somalia that captured anyone who tried to initiate violence? So long as we give a damn about what happens to people outside of our safe and cozy democracies, there are going to be wars. Even if we decide we don't want any part of the wars, that isn't going to stop countless coos, rebellions, and corrupt governments from initiating violence against their own people.
The danger in sending US troops is not the US troops. The US can flatten any non-nuclear nation with minimal losses. The problem with minimal losses is that minimal US losses means catastrophic civilian losses. A MOAB might very well get rid of all the insurgence in a city, but it also gets rid of all the civilians. What you see today is not the US army using all of its force and failing. What you see is an army desperately struggling with the balance between using enough force to protect their own and using as little force as possible in an attempt to not kill civilians. If "protecting your own" wasn't an issue, you wouldn't have Marines flattening buildings or bombs landing in cities.
War is a fact of life. If we are not fighting in one, someone else is. The only question is when war comes, do we want to get involved, and how humanly can we fight.
Like: shooting underaged terrorists who throw baseballs at cars
or: arresting people with the wrong skin colour or beard
or: automatically spraying teargas if too many people gather together
And isn't it great: these things don't need health insurance or a medical plan, and they don't feel bad about violating the rights of poor Florida residents...
I for one resent our potential police droids
sig?