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New Robots Hunt Pirates by Sea
mattnyc99 writes "PopularMechanics.com takes a peek into the growing world of high-tech piracy on the open seas, which the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard are looking to cut off by investing in a new fleet of superfast, gun-mounted unmanned surface vessels (USVs). From the article: "The Interceptor is available now. But the USV market is just getting started: Two months ago, British defense firm Qinetiq debuted its own robotic vessel, the jetski-size Sentry. Among its potential duties is intruder investigation, which could include scouting out unidentified boats, along the lines of the raft that detonated alongside the USS Cole in Yemen, as well as offering a first look at a possible pirate-controlled vessel.""
Remember, it's not piracy, it's "unauthorized copying". Oh, wait...
All hail our robotic sea ninja overlords!
Ooh arrr, what be a Jetski anyway? Russian Hanna-Barbera futurist?
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
With the "14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year.", it looks like we are finally winning the battle against global warming!
http://www.venganza.org/
Unexpect the expected!
I don't understand the rationale behind this. If these boats are going to patrol the waters for enemy boats, terrorists, or protect troops and the other side hasn't thought of, designed or implemented this idea, why let it out? Don't let the information get out and keep it secret. I understand there could be ulterior motives here, or a company hungry for a large contract. But military spending budgets have lots of room for secret spending.
Well, with all the wasted money in the US Army, at least we have Pirate fighting Robots. Seriously, this is awesome.
"high-tech piracy on the open seas"?
Good lord, waterproof robot pirates? We're DOOMED!
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
First it's unmanned sea vessels, then it's nuclear powered cyborg dogs who dream of flying steaks.
Or, if you prefer reality to science fiction: Robert Work, a retired Marine officer and analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said piracy is a "persistent threat" that the Navy has worked to address in recent years. [...] "Essentially, you don't want to use a billion dollar DDG [guided missile destroyer] to suppress pirates,"
You can't take the sky from me...
we can now nuke the gay baby whales!
"We are the Dread Pirate Robots. There will be no survivors."
If only we had a remotely-operated wheelbarrow... That would be something!
Robots, with lasers, mounted on sharks, fighting pirates, with the help of ninjas.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
Who hunts down pirates on the high seas?
ROBOT GUNBOATS!
Dangerous and deadly and fatal they be!
ROBOT GUNBOATS!
If nautical mercy is something you wish,
ROBOT GUNBOATS!
Then put up your hands or sleep with the fish!
ROBOT GUNBOATS!
I noticed they were talking some about possibly making them autonomous. That just seems like a really bad idea. What you would have is a weapon system disconnected from command. The enemy could set up a trap for these machines, capture them and then have some high-tech stuff at their disposal. Unlike a UAV, it seems like it would be pretty easy to catch one of these surface machines using any number of methods even if they normally can protect themselves with weapon systems. If they can't protect themselves then it would be even easier to capture them.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
What could possibly go wrong? I mean, I'd love my cruise ship to get checked out by the naval equivalent of ED-209.
"YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY"
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
int C = 1
if ( by land ) {
return C;
}
else
return ++C;
}
It's only a matter of time. They crank 1000 of these onto the ocean, the hackers go "oh, hey, wait a minute!" and bam, they've got 1000 gun mounted boats at their disposal, patched of course, so the same trick can't work twice.
This shit is getting fucking unreal.
... my first thought is, "The RIAA is going too far this time."
Soon RIAA will sue them for intercepting pirate content with automatic bo(a)ts
6th... You seriously fail at trolling.
...it's fundamentally unethical, illegal and immoral (depending on your particular morality, I suppose) to allow an autonomous machine to roam free with the capability (and intent) to kill human beings.
For one thing, we read here every day about the endless ways in which software farks up.
Furthermore, I find the whole notion of armed robots cruising around freely in any kind of environment - war zone or not - extremely disturbing. How do we ensure they only kill what we want them to kill? Who is accountable when they do kill things? Does the extra layer of separation between commanding officer and 'target' make it more likely that decision makers will authorise killing?
These toys are very neat from a tech perspective, but they create a perception that killing human beings is like a video game of some description.
Read Pynchon.
From TFA: "The 55-mpg Interceptor could become the long-range patrol boat of the future, while the jetski-size Sentry (inset) could help a terrorist plot such as Al Qaeda's attack on the USS Cole in December 2000." Sounds about right though...
Possibly something like this:
"Hey! Invest in us we hope to get a large military contract for a high-tech gadget!"
So, to prevent these from attacking...why not just cover them with a big tin foil blanket?
Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
Hmm... a jet ski sized robot attempting to observe and engage in the open ocean.. I wonder if any of these guys have actually been in the open ocean?
The sea is big people. The waves are big, the wind is big and the ships are big. A really small boat just barely big enough to manage to stay afloat semi-reliably in open ocean is generally 30 feet long or more. They do make them shorter, but generally only as a stunt. What is a four foot tall vehicle going to do against a vessel with steel and concrete sides that reach probably at least 10-15 feet up? These things are going to present about as much threat to the average ocean going vessel as a chihuahua attempting to pee on one's foot.
We also mentioned the sea is big. Average swell depending on area can be 8 feet on a calm day. this means a jet ski about 4 feet high is going to either spend 75% of its time inside the trough of a swell unable to see squat, or skipping along the swell tops in a way that is going to strongly resemble video froma a surfboard cam. Very splashy but not too useful.
As a harbor or shore defense weapon I can see these being possibly quite useful against similarly sized vessels like dinghies and maybe cigarette boats, but anything offshore is unrealistic.
That was great.
dah leet pirates wit millions of $$$ will h4xor your unmanned vessels. duh. It will work for a while, and then it will just escalate the stakes. And when you have limitless manual labor, you can afford to send out fishermen that blow up the unmanned vessels. (by holding their family hostage). "Don't mind me, I'm just fishing, see ya later... smile and wave" (boom).
meh
If the Pirates are human, I think this probably violates Asimov's Laws of Robotics.
And nothing good is going to come out of building robots that don't follow those laws. Seriously.
It's time. The days of zombie PCs are numbered. The future is...
Zombie robot pirates!
Do you realise just how much more awesome the world is about to become?
...mini-BOLO on waterjet! Whee!
OMG! Oh My God! Oh my god, Oh my god, OH MY GOD!!!!!
If this stuff is not what dreams are made of, then I'll eat my eye patch.
.
Do we have ninja available? Because that would be the battle royale of all time: pirate vs. robot vs. ninja. Just $49.99 on pay-per-view!
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Why not use this class of fast maned vessel, HMCS Bras d'Or (FHE 400). They can cruse in ocean waters and due to their speed are able to get on the scene very quickly and no ship can outrun them.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
1) Paintballs with low level radioactive isotopes to track them back to their lair.
2) Waterballoon-like ammo filled with distilled skunk stink and the hottest peppers you can find.
3) Flour--and a digitial camera to post on the web so the whole world laughs at their shocked expressions.
4) Arm one with the Nude Bomb.
5) Ramming speed. Nuff said.
Well, it isn't as simple as making a PC a zombie. For example - who is going to add gas, oil, maintenance etc. to a zombied boat? Oh, I know - 10 of them show up at a port and demand gas or they blow the place? That would be a good one.
How long until these things ARE THE PIRATES!
"THIS VESSEL IS A SATELITE CONTROLLED DRONE... PROVIDE 64 bank account access codes or it will OPEN FIRE! Your airwaves are being monitored!"
If this tech spreads into the world of piracy an isolated problem for the super rich may start striking all boaters... My sailing dingy is NOT bulletproof.
It's as simple as amending international marittime law to permit ship crews to arm themselves. A .50 cal deck gun should deter most of the baddies, but the Captain and crew should have
sidearms and shotguns for close-in work if necessary.
this will increase the rate of global warming.
I for one do not welcome our new pirate-hunting robotic overlords. It's hot enough here already.
A game has objectives and is competitive, anything else is just play
when i read the title i first thought, the MPAA wanted robots to swim to sweden and "visit" TPB....
The MAFIAA is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes
You know you could have so much fun with one of them and a joystick.
;)
Heck grab two and verse a friend.
Captain Redbeard
Typically it will be at night, in the straights south of Singapore. 4-5 guys suddenly appear with big machetes, and they know where to be because the inside guy told them when and where. Oh, yeah, the traitors are on watch at the time...
Cell phones and text messages work for good and ill.
I am an gung-ho as the next guy, but If I am one seaman in a crew of 12 on a small freighter and I don't know which of my mates are "in on it", shooting it out with the pirates in front and the traitors at my back is not worth it. Take the stuff, it is not mine anyhow.
Seriously, if you want to stop piracy, shipping companies need to do better background checks on their employees.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
And are these robots running on Vista?
I can imagine our friends in Russia grinning from ear to ear. Botnets are getting old fashioned already. Getting to command an army of global robots much more fun.
Someone didn't proof read the caption, either: 55-mpg?!? The only boat that gets that kind of economy is a sailboat. They obviously meant 55 mph, which is mentioned in the article itself. A typical jet-ski gets somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-12 mpg, largely depending on how you ride it and its engine configuration (carbureted two-stroke, direct injection two stroke, or fuel injected four stroke). A boat the size described will be lucky to hit 4 miles to the gallon.
Well, for engagement, I'd certainly agree with your point, but for surveillance, I'd think the platform would have a number of advantages.
The first one is stealth, if it's capable of hiding in between the seas, then you'll have a heck of a time picking it up on ship radar. Even if it is seen, it'll blend in fairly well with the sea clutter on the display. Helicopters and airplanes stick out like a sore thumb, both visually and on radar.
The second is speed. Although they'd take a significant hit in higher seas, they can potentially put up with more banging and bouncing around than a human crew could ever take. And, with the unit being virtually encapsulated, seaworthiness is no longer an issue (the water it would take would be minimal).
And as far as surveillance goes, couldn't a simple telescoping arm with a camera equipped with gyro-stabilized optics be employed? You couldn't use it effectively underway, but a slow/stop speed it would give you a decent vantage. I regularly use a 14x power set of gyro-stabilized binoculars and I can read boat registration numbers (3" high block letters) fairly easily from over a half-mile away in 5 foot sea conditions.
Let's face it, Popular Mechanics likes to write fluff, and whatever they can do to make something sound more cool, sexy and manly is their primary M.O. Step back, look at the actual facts (in which there are few in this case) and not the claims of the marketing group, nor the speculation and opinions of the writers and the real potential uses start to become visible.
People supply zombie PCs with electricity and an internet connection because the infection is generally done surreptitiously.
So do the same with the robot boats... hijack them in a way that will go undetected, so whoever owns them will continue to fuel and maintain them for you. Once you've taken over a good number of them, and they're all fueled up, you're ready to strike!
For one thing, we read here every day about the endless ways in which software farks up.
Hold on a second. Not to take away from the actual intent of your post (which I agree with) but let me see if I get this straight. A simple robot with a simple robot brain is not reliable and cannot be trusted with weapons, right? By contrast, an extremely complex human brain is reliable enough to be trusted? Either I am missing something or Fred Brooks was wrong about reliability being inversely proportional to complexity. This seems not to be the case as far as the brain is concerned. The more complex it gets, as it learns, the more reliable it gets. By golly, if the brain can do it, so can we. If not, why not? I see no reason that highly complex software should be inherently unreliable. There must be something fundamentally wrong with the way we create software. We need to find out how the brain does it, IMO, and do likewise.
..I'd say "Arrrgh those scurrrvvy rrrobots!"
Yarr, let's keelhaul 'em anyway, mateys!
Its this escallating arms race of automated fighting machines that will lead to the realisation of Fred Saberhagens 'Bezerkers'.
See my art -> http://herbevore.deviantart.com
You know it's coming don't you?
"Are you a pirate or a robot?"
You can't stop piracy, not even with robots! RIAA/MPAA has tried for years, don't they ever learn?
From the post: "The Interceptor is available now" :P
makes me think of a quote from some movie
"None can match The Interceptor for speed!"
gcc: brain.c: No such file or directory
"Pirates vs. Ninjas" is officially now yesterdays news.
- Mad, ingenous - they've both left you puzzled -
I wonder how the hell this thing differentiates between Japanese Whale Research Vessels and "real pirates" must be some bleeding edge technology on board.
Killing human beings is already a video game. The USAF 423nd Wing is comprised of 6 MQ-9 "Reaper" drones and 60 MQ-1 "Predators". The Predators can carry a couple of "Hellfire" missiles, and the Reapers can carry almost 4000 pounds of munitions.
The 432nd is currently flying sorties in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the UAVs are mostly controlled from Nevada via satellite. "Pilots" sit in air-conditioned buildings and work shifts like air-traffic controllers. If you can find video of these things killing "targets", they're frighteningly effective. These aren't toys, they're already being used in combat with very real consequences.
Its allright. I'm sure they'll listen to Reason.
Because you can - or because you should?
I have had friends stationed on Destroyers and they will tell you that in stormy weather it is no fun. Even at lengths approaching six hundred feet the high seas can be a rough place. Its a matter of displacement and the ability to have enough length to not go up and down waves. The longer ships fare much better. I have sailed on a thirty foot sailboat out of Savannah and you can take a pounding when it gets a bit choppy.
All I can assume is that these machines will designed to ignore the wash. Without a human crew there isn't the fear factor built in. At that size it probably takes a robot to handle what the weather can do to it. Fortunately craft like this can be totally sealed off so as handle gulfing (when you plow into a wave and essentially go under) and I wouldn't doubt that being flipped over is taken into account.
Without outside supervision their horizon would be very limited simply because of their lack of height, making any meaningful interdiction a pain in the ass without some guidance to ships that are suspicious. I doubt they will be see outside of coastal areas. Anything in the open sea is going to require a something akin to a submersible or near clone of a real surface ship. No, these look like interdiction for speedboats and inflatables favored by "terrorist"
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
OK, maybe the name painted on the side of the ship. But that's about it, isn't it, and that's not necessarily the most important detail? It can't carry any decent weaponry - a 7.62 cannon wouldn't be much use against a ship and I doubt a small vessel is a stable enough platform to snipe the crew.
how do they connect to the internet in the middle of the ocean. Satellite connections are expensive per MB!
It's only a matter of time. They crank 1000 of these onto the ocean, the hackers go "oh, hey, wait a minute!" and bam, they've got 1000 gun mounted boats at their disposal, patched of course, so the same trick can't work twice.
Then all you need for global terrorism is some hackers together tha facilities to refuel and rearm these boats.You don't even need to control a thousand of them, about 20 ambusing a passenger ship will get you global coverage.
This is old news, gun-mounted unmanned sharks have been around for a while.
We all wait for laser-mounted unmanned sharks.
For example - who is going to add gas, oil, maintenance etc. to a zombied boat?
Pirates (the real kind) apparently have little trouble getting hold of fuel and munitions. Even in the days of sailing ships gunpowder didn't grow on trees...
...for as we all know, less pirates means more global warming.
http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif
You make a great point about how the design of uniforms can impress the public and alter behavior.
One thing that Nazi Germany undeniably got right was uniform design. Think what you will about the people in them and the things they did, most German uniforms of that era were brilliant, powerful designs of astounding beauty and (usually) high function. I know if my local cops dressed like the SS, I'd think twice about getting on their bad side.
Of course, my local cops tend to *act* like the SS, but that's another story.
Haven't you heard about authorized crimes?
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
"This plaque is to commemorate the brave pirates who gave their lives to keep this box safe from the Robot Menace. Lest we forget them..."
If it has a weapon you can bet the link is encrypted with attempts at redundant receivers. Even if some hacker got really, really, lucky with first hand knowledge from insider help, it's very unlikely more than one or two could ever be "hacked". Heck, even their own operators can't hijack another vehicle which hasn't been previously configured on their console. And "patching the system" with new code....pffff... And by hacked, I mean remotely operated. And even this depiction is so far out there, it's insanely laughable.
Some backpack carried, hand launched, remotely piloted, tactical (not strategic like Predator or Global Hawk) spy planes do not use encryption and can be jammed, or perhaps even hijacked, but worse case you might bruise someone with it, or attempt to scout an area until its battery runs out.
I think you've been watching too much Star Trek.
This is not that much of an improvement for force protection unless procedures change. In the Cole incident, there was no marked "stay back or we'll shoot" perimeter. I doubt, then, that they would have been allowed to shoot without permission from a junior officer who may or may not have been present or in posession of the individual initiative required to shoot on gut feel and risk criminal prosecution/career suicide. This was in a known hostile port, mind you, where there would not have been time to go up the chain for permission, lock and load, bring weapons to bear, and engage before the fast boat hit.
Things could be worse with an automated system - what CO is going to trust that thing to protect his ship autonomously? Even a remotely-piloted system will face procedural problems similar to the ones I mentioned above.
Real benefits come from sending it into harms way in place of a ship. Porter fired on and sank two pirate "skiffs" a little while ago that were trying to hijack a benzene tanker. Rather than bring a lightly-armored DDG that close to a floating bomb and unknown hostiles, I'd rather send an armed robot.
I'm still waiting for the flying cars Popular Mechanics promised me in 1950, and 1951, and 1952...
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Some backpack carried, hand launched, remotely piloted, tactical (not strategic like Predator or Global Hawk) spy planes do not use encryption and can be jammed, or perhaps even hijacked, but worse case you might bruise someone with it, or attempt to scout an area until its battery runs out.
Boats are more likely to run on internal combustion engines rather than batteries. Also it's rather easier to get someone onboard a boat compared with getting them onboard a tiny aircraft. An encrypted control channel much use if the "bad guys" have physical access. If needs be they can replace your control system with their own.
Some of the robots will/may be equipped with various types of sensors: low-light, acoustical, shape-recognition, infrared, etc. For any pirates backed by corrupt local governments (or, distant ones with much to lose if piracy is crimped), it'll be inevitable and logical that "seduction mines" (influence/proximity/remote-detonation) will disrupt operations. Either some of these jet-ski-like sentries will be blown up, or they'll be diverted/distracted since the operators won't want to needlessly lose them. Sure, N/V equipment can help detect mines, and some of the newer USN subs have advanced optics capabilities (See:
http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_33/virginia_2.html
for more information)
but things have a potential to get hairy if the pirates get their hands on IR gear so they can "tempt" the operator to drive the sentry along a threat axis (or around a cove/down a strait/a channel/etc) and detonate a string of mines.
Or, they can just dump flammables into the water and when the sentry slows down to do close-up looks, torch the thing. Hurling a flare or going the route of Joan of Arc with bows and arrows can give some stand-off distance between the flame-bath and the bad guys alongside/sidled up along the victim ship.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
So much for trying to escape to an island when the machines take over, Bill.
"It isn't the comet. It's a broom. Imagine you're a race of aliens, right? And, you're looking for a new place to live. Say you're looking for a planet like you and I looking for a new place to live. A new house. So here's Earth. Only it's like this big old house. And, it's kind of polluted, dirty, and smoky. Grease on the walls, soot in the chimney. So, they send in their interstellar housecleaners. Send in their broom. Sweep us all up. That's what this it is, it's a broom. Using our own machines to sweep us right off."
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
That some whack-o in the government is taking you seriously,
or maybe he is not, and he is just looking for a boost in
recognition and these little "take over diatribes" as they see
them will get you add to the bullshit watch list.
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
I can see the really funny future headlines. "Robotic boat kills boat load of school children on boat trip". I can also see unmanned robotic gun turrets being placed outside internet cafes across New York to shoot terrorists as they come out (cause if they use a net cafe, they must be a terrorist right?).
I guess I'll have to "wear the mark" if I wish to sail my little boat around the world ever again... pity... that was fun stuff.
Well, as for your comment on gun powder...
Smokeless or fast burning powder takes a lot to make, but regular old black powder was actually EASY to make.
No chem set, nothing needed, just a bit of batshit... literally.
" What luck for rulers that men do not think" - Adolf Hitler
If it's remotely controlled, the signal can be jammed. I realize the military has some pretty fancy anti-jamming tech, I'd be interested in informed opinions on the likelihood that pirates could defeat it.
The other option is to make them autonomous, so we have armed robots roaming the high seas deciding whether or not to open fire on any vessel they encounter. A monumentally bad idea.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
I sail.
In times passed (actually in the late 70s and early 80s), I sailed thousands of miles offshore in a small, fast catamaran. We had minimal radar visibility (just 9m, fibreglass, no keel, tiny engine, not much metal). We had no radar of course, and never turned on our VHF radio. I used a sextant for navigation.
On occasion I sailed alone - and even took naps. (That's what self steering is for - and this was in open ocean).
The idea of an autonomous jet ski sized vessel sneaking up on me and being able to shoot at me if I didn't have the "right" authorisation is truly scary. I feel it wouldn't like me as I'd appear to be on a stealth vessel.
I mean, it could try to hail me on radio - no response. What would it do next, shoot me or yell at me in - oh, I don't know, Russian?
Damn, as if icebergs, whales and semi submersed cargo containers weren't scary enough, here comes a new threat. Oh boy.
Maybe I'll stick to Sydney Harbour.
"Cats like plain crisps"
This is not a robot, it's an unmanned boat with a gun on it. My alarm clock is more of a robot than this thing. My alarm clock does it's job without human control. This system is not a robot in the same way that your car is not a robot, or the "robots" in "robot wars" are not robots.
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almost always MUSLIMS!! (99% of the time)