BEAR Robot Designed To Rescue Wounded Soldiers

Zothecula writes "The US Army is currently testing a robot designed to locate, lift, and carry wounded soldiers out of harm's way without risking additional lives. With feedback from its on-board sensors and cameras, the Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) can be remotely controlled through the use of a special M-4 rifle grip controller or by hand gestures using an AnthroTronix iGlove motion glove. This equipment would allow a soldier to direct BEAR to a wounded soldier and transport them to safety where they can be assessed by a combat medic."

Comments

Shardik?

[No Lucifer]

"See the BEAR of fearsome size, all the world's within his eyes..."

and so the first thing the robot can say will be:

[PolygamousRanchKid]

"What is the number of your life insurance policy?"

Combat situation

[cosm]

In under-fire situations, I understand the need to reduce casualties. Can this thing move fast enough to really get the job done? I mean, its not like our guys are fighting in speed-ball arenas, with nice and neat little pathways to the downed. Much of the time the terrain is shelled, broken remnants of buildings, cars, misc. crap is scattered everywhere, and tracked-robot friendly areas seem sparse. What about mountain fighting? If I were the Taliban (there I said it, fuck you Medal of Honor), I would target these things, they would stick out like a sore thumb. Its not like 'not shooting medics' has ever really been respected lately (by both sides).

Re:Combat situation

[physicsphairy]

If I were the Taliban, I would target these things, they would stick out like a sore thumb. Its not like 'not shooting medics' has ever really been respected lately (by both sides).

I'm sure it can be made more discrete (more in the vein of a typical soldier, albeit identifiable by its weird movement). The Taliban can shoot at it all they want: it's ideal to have them shooting at the robot rather than anyone else. (Honestly that is a silly priority for them to have given that the 'anyone else' is likely to be trying to kill them.) Doubtless you can put a lot of armor on it. Even if they're making a point of trying to kill the wounded individual (again, a bad priority on their part) the robot is still serving the invaluable function of eliminating the "do we risk injuring more guys to save our wounded guy" dilemma. That's a major tactical boon even if the robot's effectiveness is somewhere between poor and mediocre.

As for its versatility, it actually looks quite capable. You can see two sets of treads connected on an arm. I'd imagine it could even go up stairs.

Re:Combat situation

[DNS-and-BIND]

Spoken as a true ignorant. Lemme check the website. Nope! I don't see Taliban listed anywhere. I see the League of Arab States, but the Taliban aren't Arabs. It seems the Red Cross are training Taliban. *awkward cough* *tumbleweed*

Re:Combat situation

[MichaelSmith]

We seem to be in agreement. Red cresent and red cross are essentially the same thing. Red cross is training people in Taliban areas to give first aid. US military medics don't work for the red cross, even if they (like myself) had some training from that organization.

Re:Combat situation

[Ihmhi]

If you do that then the soldiers might start asking why they're not outfitted with better armor in the first place.

Re:Combat situation

[nbauman]

It seems the Red Cross are training Taliban. *awkward cough* *tumbleweed*

That's right. The ICRC is an international humanitarian organization, which has a policy of neutrality. Their only goal is to save lives, without regard to political affiliation. They provide medical assistance to both the Afghan government and the Taliban. NATO accepts that.

The ICRC comes in pretty handy when the NATO governments have to deal with the Taliban, for example in prisoner exchanges, locating kidnap victims, or in their eventual peace negotiations.

Re:Combat situation

[tehcyder]

At least the bear could carry a few easily replaceable spare wheels, not so easy with human feet.

Re:Combat situation

[nbauman]

GP was explaining that, if the US hadn't decided to politicise medical assistance, there wouldn't have been this story in the first place.

That's right. The Taliban could have taken their commander to a Doctors Without Borders clinic, who would have treated him without regard to his politics, just as they treat everybody else.

Scary.

[goldaryn]

I'm on the battlefield, wounded, afraid and possibly delerious, and up rolls the bastard offspring of Wall-E and pedobear?

Airports...

[Frosty Piss]

My first thought at seeing the picture was that this was some new TSA insult.

Re:and so the first thing the robot can say will b

[MichaelSmith]

"What is the number of your life insurance policy?"

"Before I treat you, please confirm you are not openly gay."

You are not supposed to ask that.

Re:So why not...

[MichaelSmith]

No doubt both sides would outsource BEAR remote control to the same big company on the outskirts of Mumbai...

It's Official

[benjamindees]

The US military is officially just a giant rube goldberg contraption designed to transfer tax monies to defense contractors.

I think this might even beat out the guys who manage to sell their anti-gravity tesla coils to the pentagon.

Parody? Satire? Ironyyyyyyy

[ZirconCode]

This is the funniest thing I've read today. So you want to send human soldiers into harms way but you then want to develop technology which can do a humans work to retrieve them without causing any further harm to your soldiers? Really?! War....

Re:don't ask, don't tell

[TrisexualPuppy]

I resemble that remark.

--TrisexualPuppy

I'm deeply concerned

[newcastlejon]

It seems as though one day armies (at least the US') will be composed of robots killing humans. I'm not going to trot out the usual OMG SKYNET!! sentiment, though. What concerns me is that there'll be at least one nation that will be out there making war without suffering much in the way of human loss: where will be the incentive to stop?

Take a lesson from one of your own:

It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it. - Lee, December 1862

When I think that after ten millennia of so-called civilisation we as a species still resort to murder to solve our differences I despair, I truly do.