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Military Robots to Gain Advanced Sight

Posted by Soulskill on from the stay-on-target dept.

coondoggie brings us a NetworkWorld report discussing iRobot's plans to include Laser Radar technology in their military robots. Quoting: "Specifically the robot-maker is licensing Advanced Scientific Concepts' 3-D flash Ladar which uses laser beams to scan and process targets. The system has the ability to create a virtual 3D picture of an entire area. IRobot ... believes the technology will provide new navigation and mapping capabilities for future generations of robots and unmanned ground vehicles and pave the way for autonomous vehicles to lead convoys into dangerous territory, search contaminated buildings for casualties, or enable bomb squads to safely investigate suspicious objects."

3 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Seeing Victory by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Am I glad that we're making military robots with advanced sight. I wouldn't want to waste any more time and money on distractions like an orderly withdrawal from Iraq, or beating the Taliban in Afghanistan, or healing the tens of thousands of maimed soldiers the Pentagon has created over there, or stopping nuke proliferation.

    Yeah, subsidizing global R&D by inventing seeing military robots under the totally inefficient Pentagon budget is my idea of victory.

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    make install -not war

    1. Re:Seeing Victory by TimMD909 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      They're having too much fun testing out new robotic limbs to get out of Iraq. Each day, so many new test subjects volunteers become available. Vietnam killed a bunch of people, but look at the cool helicopters we got out of it! Die Hard would just not have had as cool of an ending...

    2. Re:Seeing Victory by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      The "little more than an adjustment of the economy from wartime mobilization" was, even by your own count, 19 months out of the 48 months from the war's end through 1949.

      The 1970s economy was a lot worse than just the 16 months during the "oil crisis".

      You obviously don't want to admit that war is bad for the economy. Why don't you look at the current US economy after 6 years of war, despite $TRILLIONS spent propping it up with debt. You like war. Now that's established, you're not worth listening to.

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      make install -not war