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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."
Hell, just crank up the bandwidth for remote-control vehicles and bots, and outsource the whole damned war. I'm already working on an Abu Graihb torture module.
Table-ized A.I.
Can't we just send over a bunch of people who compete in the Battlebot tournaments? Yeah, the wedge robots would need a little upgrading, but I can imagine that Nightmare (the big blade a'spinnin') would help out. In the British version of Battlebots (Robot Wars?) they're allowed to use flame weapons. Go go gadget killing machine!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
Sorry, I really don't know about EMP bursts, beyond that they fry electronics. Would it be possible to create a targetted, or shaped EMP burst, say in front of vehicles that would fry the circuits on the IEDs, and keep the IEDs from going off?
love is in the air...everywhere I look around...
.oo00OO
Maybe if they created a news post about the new layout people wouldn't be foreced to comment off topic in order to talk about it.
Philosophy.
Sorry about posting offtopic, but theres people who were requesting the old slashdot css, which can be used with a firefox extension (greasemonkey?) to utilize the old look. I've posted all the old css files in my journal for everyone's convenience. Cheers. :)
So 2 feet midget robot car driving around trying to stop IEDs with suicidial nutbag driving right into target? Better yet, how does that help everyone trying to not get blown to pieces while shopping for food or trying to go to school or trying to go from point A to point B?
Oh wait, here is an idea. EM bomb. No ignition, No Boom.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
IOTN - Ionatron has already developed something called a JIN that is a remote vehicle that shoots current into the ground detonating all IED's within a certain range.
Scott
SSHGuru.com
"...envisions the creation of an unmanned ground vehicle that could patrol large areas without putting U.S. soldiers in harm's way." "We're already using drones (unmanned airplanes) for surveillance in the skies over Iraq,"
So how long before they save lives by taking lives?
It may be pedantic and out of date but I would prefer if there was a disincentive for military action (like counter invasion or the loss of life) rather than an all out search for ways to carry out military action on the cheap.
Although who wants to see dead soldiers and civilians (of any nationality) - This is good for robotics, it may be bad for warfare - but then sadly technology with any military application usually does end up killing people,- lets all get back to clubs with nails in, the body count may be lower.
Because there was no oil there
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
I think you meant, "As far as creating lots of new Islamic militants and terrorists, Iraq is a pretty good strategy. Plus we get to test out all these cool new IEDs."
Osama got exactly what he wanted: The removal of Saddam, and a ton of new recruits.
The robot i would like to see is a 8 wheeled behemoth with a 4 foot thick armored plate surounding the control area and engine compartment about 6-8 feet wide and maybe 5 foot long that that blasts water jets into the ground directly underneath it to dismantly and land mines it rolls over while doing 50 MPH. Then four robotic armes (2 arms like the booms on a backhoe and 2 arms that function like regular arms capatble of grasping things). EMP generators that only effect maybe a ten foot area and can either disable IED's and road side bombs or set them off. Radio jamming equiptment that can also stop remote detonations. An aray of input sensores that can locate human object and relay thier actions or placment (snypers) and maybe even target them for some other smart weapon to take out. 50 cal snyper riffles and a machine gun, maybe a small 25 or 30 mm auto loading cannon for troop support.
Make this controlable by a couple of nitendo/xbox style controlers with a sighting relay and let it escort every convoy they run in hostile teritory. All the other vehicles need to do is stay back and follow the wet areas. If it does detonate something, it can push it aside, pick it up with the arms and move it or even do a quicky repair to the road to let the other vehilces pass. Give it a UAV for extended sensor information gathering.
Anything that helps to prevent human losses is welcome. That said, some methods are more efficient than others. Sending sophisticated robots to defuse explosive traps aimed at American soldiers looks way less efficient than keeping those soldiers at home, preventing both the loss of their lives and that of uncounted civilians, the destruction of a country and the wave of terrorism that is spawned by such violence. This kind of "solution" makes me think of a billion-dollar electronic, intelligent cork put into the hole (opened at a price of a billion dollar) into a billion dollar dam that shouldn't have been built in the first place. Weird analogy, I know, but American politics is no less weird.
Nuffsaid
________
Don't know about his cat, but Schroedinger is definitely dead.