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A Peek At South Korea's Autonomous Robot Gun Turrets
cylonlover writes "If there's one place you don't want to be caught wandering around right now, it's the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea. Especially since South Korean military hardware manufacturer DoDAMM used the recent Korea Robot World 2010 expo to display its new Super aEgis 2, an automated gun turret that can detect and lock onto human targets from kilometers away, day or night and in any weather conditions, and deliver some heavy firepower."
can it detect cloaked spies carrying sappers?
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
The Juche spirit is indomitable. The capitalist lap dogs of the South cannot hope to win because their people are weak and unwilling to die for their country.
The real reason they have Autoturrets is because of the notorious Axe Murder Incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident)
I tend not to get too excited by weapons since they are designed to kill people. Still, these are primarily defensive.
What is really great about them though is that they can be used s an alternative to landmines. There has been a strong demand for a landmine ban from a lot of the world for some time, but they have been unable to get US backing. Now, the US is pretty responsible with its landmines, but the failure of such a major nation to agree to treaties bannning mines has resulted in many less responsible nations refusing to do so either.
These autonomous sentries are a lot easier to spot and deactivate, and considerably less likely to be forgotten about. They're not exactly pleasant but far better than the alternative.
At some point, they have enough conventional weapons that they can guarantee each other's destruction even without the need of nukes.
I'd hate to be the maintenance guy: "You sure this thing's been swithced off?" "Sure thing, go right ahead...." "Okay, it's a four kilometer hike, and don't turn it back on until I've checked it, and walked back...."
What's really great about these turrets is that besides being able to fire missiles long range, they can also detect cloaked units up to 7 spaces away. This is especially useful for detecting ghosts and wraiths.
just send in cardboard cutouts on Segways until the turret runs out of ammo. I wonder if they would shoot at someone walking on their hands, or maybe you can program them to only shoot people with bad fashion/hair...hmmmm
Waiting for the other shoe to...
If you read the "story" you will see that the entire DMZ angle is entirely speculation. The writer doesn't know if this weapon is used there or not, but that doesn't stop him waffling on about it, before admitting its all speculation at the end.
Do they have limited ammo with a cool retro yellow-black interface, which ticks down to zero with appropriate warnings, is fooled by throwing an empty bucket in front of it, and which exhausts its entire ammo supply in under 30 seconds?
Either way, the Aliens:Special Edition guys probably would like to have a look at them.
I'm just glad that South Korea has learned lessons about winning the hearts and minds of the populace, and is not making itself look like an evil faceless inhuman foe to the people of the North.
.... they're a sitting duck for a missile or shelling to take them out.
....one hell of a Top Gear episode
We'll start off here, in Busan, South Korea
and race up the east coast into the demilitarised zone between N & S Korea
Avoiding the barrage of automatic gun fire, we'll hurtle into North Korea
Now, as many western maps have no details on the layout of North Korea, we'll all become James May for the day, and probably get lost
But by mid-afternoon we must have traversed west through North Korea, and begin our journey back south down the western coast
Again, avoiding the barrage of automatic gun fire as we pass into South Korea, we'll finish the race in a town called Gwangju for a traditional Korean evening meal (which Hammond won't eat)
have extremely cute voices?
After years of not using a signature, I am going to make one to say the following: Fuck Beta
can find and lock onto a human sized target.
So you'll be safe if you cross the DMZ dressed as big bird or am I missing something?
That's how these turrets are going to fail. They simply go out of ammo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGE_h4jBBXc
I tend not to get too excited by weapons since they are designed to kill people. Still, these are primarily defensive.
There are no such things as defensive or "primarily defensive" weapons. Or pehaps it would be more accurate to admit that there are such but the distinction is completely irrelevant.
Let's imagine that during the cold war one of the sides would have came up with a technology that would have given them 100% protection from the opponent's missiles. This would have been primarily defensive technology (and one that protects the civilian population!) but it obviously would have meant that the side gets a massive offensive advantage (as the other side can't retaliate). Or let's imagine that a nation occupies another nation and then uses primarily defensive weapons to hold those areas under control (to prevent the attacks of the resistance movement and such). Is that offensive or defensive? In nearly any imaginable conflict, the attacker also needs to defend itself and as such it doesn't really matter whether a weapon is defensive or not.
You could make a point that the defensive weapons help keep the current situation stable (Let's deploy those to every border of every nation and if they're efficient enough... Whoo! No war!) but that doesn't really matter unless we know that the current situation is and will be the preferred one. There are (and will be) plenty of dictatorships that will use the newest defensive technologies to prevent revolutions. I know that I'm somewhat stretching the literal meaning of the word but I'd still like to say that sometimes keeping the situation stable is equivalent to an offensive action (That a cruel dictator is equivalent to an occupying force)... Now, some entities always can defeat the newest technologies, others can't. This essentially means that every time a new (defensive) weapon is created, more power is concentrated to the entities that are already the most rich and powerful. That's the only stability that those create.
As for those being alternative to land mines... Interesting point. I bet that those are (and will be, for the foreseaable future) so much more expensive than landmines, though, that it won't be "either-or". It will probably be "landmines" or "both".
Here's a video on Youtube showing the prototype during testing, I'm sure it's only a glitch.
> Weapons aren't evil when used to defend oneself.
Weapons are not evil. To be evil requires the capacity for good, Some "evil" people are not evil because they lack this trait; they are insane.
Even the ICJ has admitted that nuclear weapons might be legitimately used in some circumstances, for example.
And enough rifles will kill as many people as died at Hiroshima, or Dresden. Or under Stalin.
A weapon is a tool, to be used or abused or destroyed or thrown away. Your point--"when used to defend oneself"--shows that It is what we do with the weapon that establishes moral worth.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
...what ever happened to the Three Laws of Robotics?
...but the only way to be sure is to nuke the North from orbit.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
Defeat the ability of the 'autofocus Infra-Red sensor' and the weapon is rendered useless.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
... remote controlled. This turrets still require a human being for firing from a remote secure location. They can be connected by wire (ethernet) or wireless. Yes, i not only did RTFA, but also read the promotional poster of the weapon itself.
I just sent wave after wave of men until the killbots simply reached their kill limit of 999,999 then swept them off the floor.
The original url looks about the same size as the tinyurl: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Kongsberg+RWS. Oh wait, am I reducing your ability to track people who click your link? I'm sorry.
Or are you just trying to hide the fact that the final landing is http://www.google.com/search?q=Kongsberg+RWS (again, not long enough to warrant a shortener)?
...seen 6 years ago on slashdot (and with a lovely video in TFA)
The Super aEgis 2 is an automated gun tower that can find and lock on to a human-sized target in pitch darkness at a distance of up to 1.36 miles (2.2 kilometers). It uses a 35x zoom CCD camera with 'enhancement feature' for bad weather, in conjunction with a dual FOV, autofocus Infra-Red sensor, to pick out targets. Then it brings the pain, either with a standard 12.7mm caliber machine-gun, a 40mm automatic grenade launcher upgrade, or whatever other weapons system you want to bolt on to it, including surface-to-air missiles. A laser range finder helps to calibrate aim, and a gyroscopic stabilizer unit helps correct both the video system's aim and the direction of the guns after recoil pushes them off-target.
What other reason would you bolt a surface-to-air missile launcher onto an automated turret that targets humans?
Gun turrets now come with fatal remote exploits?
;)
I'm fairly certain that even North Korea can crack WEP encryption in several days, or weeks tops...
So, you get close to the gun turret and you hear this: "Please leave the DMZ. You have 20 seconds to comply." You begin leaving the DMZ, but 15 seconds later the is still chasing you. "You have 5 seconds to comply. Four... three... two... one... I am now authorized to use physical force!" So, these are named ED-209, right? Wonder what happens to wildlife? How about kids? If the thing is programmed to avoid kids, does that mean little people get a free pass, too?
This turrets still require a human being for firing from a remote secure location. Yes, i not only did RTFA, but also read the promotional poster of the weapon itself.
Except you obviously missed the section labeled "Features" in which it says Autonomous Detection/Tracking/Targeting and Manual/Autonomous Firing with Safety
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The "Selbstschussanlagen" at the East German border were no automatic turrets. Just a fancier name for a claymore-type mine with a high directional characteristic. Basically the explosive force and shrapnel was directed by a funnel shaped "barrel". The whole thing was triggered by a tripwire.
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.
a usb webcam, an airsoft/nerf gun and some construction material/servos will do just fine for that (i suggest lego mindstorms for the construction/movement)
People, what a bunch of bastards
Didn't you know? This RWS was created using a new Kinect hack. What can't that thing do?!
No trackee, I'm just in the habit of using the link-shortening feature at LMGTFY, which doesn't really "hide" anything.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
It's just a matter of time til some asshole straps it to one of these:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/10/12/1724211/Robots-Guarding-US-Nuclear-Stockpiles-In-Nevada
and then flips the auto go button to see what happens. Robotic gun turret hitching a ride on a robotic hummer.
Life is going to get real interesting where ever that thing is.
...Is anyone there? ...Could you come over here?
I don't blame you.
Except you obviously missed the section labeled "Features" in which it says Autonomous Detection/Tracking/Targeting and Manual/Autonomous Firing with Safety
I'm not seeing that in the article or in the poster. The DODAAM website is slashdotted right now, but if it says that I'd be suspecting a bad translation. There's nothing in the feature set of this piece of hardware that supports automatic tracking or autonomous firing. Detecting a human size target at some distance only means the optics and camera has a certain minimum resolution.
I've actually done some work on integrating a similar US-designed device onto a semi-autonomous vehicle, so I can read the DODAAM poster with some background.
I have the actual website up (I guess I got it before it was slashdotted) And not only does it mention what I have posted, it also says "Simple Switching to Manual Operation Mode" twice. So it would seem as if fully autonomous operation is the intended default mode
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
i think it was late at night, on one of cartoon network's adult swim shows
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Totally. Raven vs. mass Zergling can only end one way
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Strange, that (if my browser search is not corrupted already) noone mentioned SkyNet or Terminator(s) here so far. Even if SkyNet booting is somehow overdue now, still:
1) such a things happens regullarly in technics
2) that may be the latest Terminator's timing correction after Connor reached Cheyene mountain in the third sequel...
Joking, of course... hey, do I ?
"Interesting times to you..." (One of the most feared black magic curses.)
I remember a home made gun turret made by a student that was covered by Slashdot a few years ago, the guy who made it used his brother as a test subject. The turret carried a toy BB gun...still looked like it hurt when it nailed his brother quite comprehensively.
Wish I could find a link. IIRC it used a cheap webcam and an image processing library to recognise a human form, and just pointed the gun that way and started firing.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
at least the turrets aren't mobile and have to be resupplied by human agents.
Seriously, OP needs to write "I will not use LMGTFY unless someone is asking an astonishingly stupid question." 200 times on the blackboard.
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
But does it run Lotus Notes?
Today:
"Super aEgis 2, an automated gun turret that can detect and lock onto human targets from kilometers away, day or night and in any weather conditions, and deliver some heavy firepower."
Tomorrow:
"Super XXXXX, an automated gun turret that can detect and lock onto Super aEgis 2 targets from kilometers away, day or night and in any weather conditions, and deliver some heavy firepower."
"Autonomous Firing with Safety"... guess what the safety is. Automated safety? More like, "human decision" safety.
Yes, it says "Simple Switching to Manual Operation Mode on Emergency". Which means it is designed for and capable of operating fully automatically. That safety is there in case little Suzy wanders into it's field of observation chasing Mittens and someone happens to notice it in time. In times of increased tension or expected imminent outbreak of war, that safety will not be enabled.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
Huh. That core must have had some ancillary responsibilities.
I can't shut off the turret defences.
Oh well. If you want my advice, you should just go lie down in front of a rocket. Trust me, it will be a lot less painful than the neurotoxin.
All machines communicate back to headquarters through a LAN cable or wireless network.
Remember those little usb powered rocket launchers? Booya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkAmpMy8liQ
With kids making autonomous turrets out of paintball guns, legos and Nerf Guns, I no longer see these as new or special. I would be extremely surprised if they were not in wide use in some form already (ie: auto-hunt, but wait for human confirmation of target before firing), with many more functions than just machine gun (missiles, grenades, laser targeter, etc)
-Tm
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
TinyUrl doesn't give people the ability to track links.
This solves the wrong problem. Understand South Korea's basic defensive problem: Seoul is only 40Km from North Korea. Some suburbs are much closer. North Korea has artillery with at least a 60Km range, plus missiles and nuclear weapons.
No fixed obstacle has ever stopped a serious armored assault force. See Maginot Line, Ardennes Forest, Siegfried Line, Normandy Invasion, Kuwait.
Devices like this are the future of modern warfare. Unflinching, unwavering, completely accurate and obedient.
The scary part is that devices like this aren't all that difficult to construct. I don't have the link, but years ago there was a video floating around of a kid doing this with a paintball gun and a webcam. I don't think it will be long before some nutjob sets up one of these on his roof.
Even scarier is the thought that someone could hook a green laser pointer up to such a control system and blind everyone in, say, times square, in a fraction of a second. It's about damn time we start treating things like high-powered lasers as munitions, subject to ownership requirements and background checks like we do with firearms.
The future scares the crap out of me, and makes me glad I don't have children of my own to worry about.
http://www.masturbateforpeace.com/
This is interesting, in a "new fact to file away and ponder much later" but in no way new. Modern naval ships have had this type of technology for a very, very long time. By way of example, one of the more modern Frigates in the world, first deployed in 1990, can continue to acquire (via Identify Friend or Foe transponders, or IFF, which everyone uses and have for ages, plus various aggression-identifying logic systems), track and attack targets under a full combat level of alertness even if all personnel on board are dead.
Within the next 10 years practically every navy in the world will have this type of system in place; the only ones who currently do not are those whose ships are more than 20 years old and for whatever reason, could not upgrade the command-and-control system in the meantime.
The fictional standard that all real ones probably should be measured against :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ho4zowaaXI
Uh, Linux geek since 1999.
China had one too and the Japanese just went around it.
In addition to the prohibitions provided by special Conventions, it is especially forbidden -
...
To employ arms, projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;
South Korea is a signatory country of those conventions.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
I live on the east coast of Canada ...
I suspect that, if you were living in South Korea - say, somewhere around Seoul, knowing that there are several thousand shells ready to land on your head at any moment - you'd have a very different perspective in those things.
I really hate people.
You hate people who are doing the best they can to defend themselves?
Really? You would honestly skew my perspective in such a way... hmmm, very well. A soulless machine regardless of how advanced its 'targeting' system has no moral divide, no morality.. All I am saying is that there are more pressing issues on the world than sinking umpteen millions of dollars into perfecting death. How is that a hard concept to understand or in anyway indicates that I believe that Korea shouldnt defend themselves. Further, you dont know me i am a strongly convicted man even if war was at my doorstep I wouldnt change my views on death or war or the reasons wars are fought or that people are stupid. People are stupid, look around you for every one person dedicated to making life better there are five who are willing to sacrifice your life for power. Dont be so naive, its pretty hard to fight a war when your people are being choked by their own atmosphere. For all our intelligence we can't come up with a way to save ourselves from ourselves. 'I hate people' I dont hate Koreans, I dont hate muslims, jews, african americans.. it isnt about race, its the human race I have issue with.
When you dislike the human race as much as I do, Karma:Bad is inevitable lol.
All I am saying is that there are more pressing issues on the world than sinking umpteen millions of dollars into perfecting death.
The world is not a singular entity. There may be any more pressing issues in your corner of it; there may be different issues in another corner.
You seem to be of the doomsday environmentalist variety. Even assuming your worst predictions, we're fucked in decades in the earliest. Meanwhile, for ROK, if DPRK attacks and overwhelms, they can be fucked, quite literally, tomorrow - and it's a whole other level of being "fucked", as in "hundreds of thousands of casualties overnight".
So, yes. I dare say that your perspective is way too narrow.
Further, you dont know me i am a strongly convicted man even if war was at my doorstep I wouldnt change my views on death or war or the reasons wars are fought or that people are stupid.
Would you explain all that to the guy in uniform who will come into your house with a rifle to loot it?
Priorities!
Dont be so naive, its pretty hard to fight a war when your people are being choked by their own atmosphere.
Huh? AGW is one thing, but "choked by atmosphere" - where does that come from?
For all our intelligence we can't come up with a way to save ourselves from ourselves.
We will. I'm not convinced that humanity is on its way to a complete extinction-inducing disaster. Yes, there will be troubles due to AGW and other environmental issues. Yes, there will be casualties. No, it won't wipe out the human race, or deal a death blow to our technological civilization.
I hate people
Then what are you doing on the Internet? It's made by people and for people, you know. Furthermore, by using it - and the vast resources of the modern technological civilization that were needed to create it, and are needed to maintain it - you are doing your part in bringing the apocalypse closer.
Go away, build a hut somewhere in the middle of the woods (it being Canada), and live in harmony with nature. Even if us nasty humans still crash the sky on you and you die, you will know that you had no part in it.
lol I make no attempt to hide my views I am in no way a environmentalist hippy... the fact remains that in my life there has never been a winter so mild for me it is a key indicator that there are changes taking place and they are happening rapidly enough for me to a raise a eyebrow. You can quote and criticize all you like, fact remains that if war came to my doorstep and a man with a rifle came to my house to loot it. Id do my best to shove a knife in his throat and watch him bleed out before I die. What i wouldnt do is set a claymore outside so the milkman could die as easily as that soldier. Oh and I still hate people if that raises your ire thats fine, people as a whole are not as intelligent as they would love to believe, but there are individuals out there who honestly just want a better world to counter the ones who would see it burn to further their own ends.
When you dislike the human race as much as I do, Karma:Bad is inevitable lol.