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Robots Guarding US Nuclear Stockpiles In Nevada
kkleiner writes "The US National Nuclear Security Administration recently announced that it has started using autonomous robot vehicles to patrol the vast desert surrounding its Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The 1360+ square miles of territory is home to millions of tons of low grade nuclear waste, as well as Cold War Era nuclear weapons, and cutting edge nuclear testing research. Guarding those precious nuclear materials is the Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) robot, which is essentially a camera on a mini-Hummer. The MDARS can roam and scout the desert on its own, alerting a remote operator when it encounters something that shouldn't be there."
I'm more worried about operators trusting hackable equipment to give them good data. What is it using? thermal? movement? shapes? colors? Whatever it is a robot's ability to "see" as in detect patterns in what it's looking at is far, far less advanced than what the human brain can detect. I dearly hope these cameras are being monitored on a 1 person/1 camera basis.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
This seems like an excellent use of robotic patrol vehicles. Driving around on patrol in that desert is a tedious assignment and the chance that someone might actually show up out there to steal old nuclear waste is pretty low. If the robotic vehicle detects anything unusual there is plenty of time to get people (or the next generation of vehicular robot?) out to the site to investigate further and/or stop the perps.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
I hope they have an infinite budget, too. But they don't, so it's good that they're using technology to make the most of what they have.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
They are trying to save money and they are using a mini Hummer?? How many gallons to the mile?