Slashdot Mirror
Wall-E Lookalike Wins British War Robot Showdown
longacre writes "Following in the footsteps of DARPA's Urban Challenge, in which robotic vehicles had to navigate a complex obstacle course without human intervention, the UK upped the ante with its own Ministry of Defence Grand Challenge: within a mock enemy village, robots were instructed to find potential targets and make distinctions between armed troops, roadside bombs and snipers. The winning entry, Team Stellar's SATURN system, actually consists of three vehicles: a low level drone and a tracked ground vehicle transmit reconnaissance data to a high-altitude robotic relay aircraft, which proceeds to phone that data home to a central processing center. Upon announcing the winner yesterday, MoD said they are 'carefully considering if technologies demonstrated in the final can be incorporated into future frontline kit for the Armed Forces. It is possible that the winning team will have invented a product that can be developed rapidly for the front line.'"
The trash is people.
God spoke to me.
Just what the world needs, a robotic killing machine that likes to hold hands.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
What I like is this:
Would it not, perhaps, be better to invest time and energy into robots which "make distinctions" between armed troops and unarmed civilians?
Read Pynchon.
Well, there are notable similarities.
For example, it has tank treads, just like WALL-E. Also, it has binocular-type eyes, similar to WALL-E.
However, the same could be said of an AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter sitting on top of an M1A1 Abrams tank. :)
Did no one else see this movie? This is clearly a step towards Johnny 5, Wall-E be damned.
OK, OK, OK, First off, That robot looked nothing like Wall-E, Second Wall-E was based on robot designs we are capable of making now, so the similarity's are not that striking. Treads: Easy to build and practical, used in most designs except Asimo and Big Dog. Stereo eyes: useful and also integrated into a lot of designs. The big center box: holds batteries and CPU's, though doesn't compact shit. Johnny-5 looked more like this robot then Wall-E, but both are based on real science, J5 was more down to earth then the cartoon who had way to many degrees of freedom without actuators to make me comfortable.
Or French.
Or lazy and French.
It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
well put. and note, if we're talking about armed battlefield robots, targetting the opposition with lethal force, false positives should NOT be acceptable.
Quote:
within a mock enemy village, robots were instructed to find potential targets and make distinctions between armed troops
This is obviously designed for use in "the war on terror" where most of the fighting is against mock enemies....
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
Why uncomfortable, did it touch you..? ;)
Just make sure that the robots have a preset kill limit. Then you can send wave after wave of your own men in, until they shut down.
DARPA and the MOD tried to have a joint challenge, however most of the British robots were shot or run over by the American robots during the exercise.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Two dis-similarities..
The cardboard last minute visor over the boom camera. The last minute sandwich box with a fan in it on the deck top.
also the plastic tarp over what looks like a Canon S2 digital camera also mounted on the deck top.
I love these competitions, the projects come out to compete and every one of them looks like it was just snagged off the bench with a sigh of "I hope this works"...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Hence the clauses in the Geneva convention referring to carrying arms openly, and distinctive badges and insignia.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Just about any technology can be used to kill. At least with military hardware, the best weapon is one that never needs to be used.
Also, is there something intrinsically better about being mauled by an old fashioned cannonbal than a grenade? Or a crossbow bold instead of a sniper bullet? Ideally, if you could develop and maintain a sufficiently large enough technology gap you woulnd't need to fight. Military development is as much about saving lives through conflict deterrence as it is about winning wars by killing people.
Bottom line, guns don't kill people, people do. All I know is that I'd rather bring a gun to a knife fight than a knife to a gun fight. I'd also rather be the one wearing a bulletproof vest in a gunfight, and the one with the armour peircing bullets etc.
Shouldn't it be armed with a bayonet, have a red jacket and run on tea?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You would think in a UK competition there would be at least one of those remote control Daleks running around hollering "EXTERMINATE!!!"
-When going for broke, go for Ithaca!
I must say, mentioning distinction and honor when your armed forces are viewed as an aggressor in the large part of the rest of the world sounds rather... hollow.
I also won't take your claims at face value; they sound like way too much propaganda. Well, you sound like propaganda, to be more accurate.
Random capitalization doesn't help, either.
Ignore this signature. By order.