Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Military Invents Tumbling, Flying Sphere
thebchuckster writes "A Japanese developer has released a cool, new sphere that is billed as being able to go where humans can't. The sphere is 17-inches, features eight movable rudders, and can hover in the air for at least eight minutes. While reaching speeds of up to 37 miles per hour, the sphere deftly moves through the air without much effort. It doesn't take much to get it up in the air and moving, and it will be adept at going into tight areas."
And if you stick a really nasty looking syringe on it, it makes a great Deathstar interrogation system.
When will the US make one and attach a missile to it?
Reminds of Half Life 2's scanners (http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/City_Scanner). I suspect prices of crowbars in Japan will go up pretty soon.
At last, Metroid for real!
Soon, I hope they'll do a real-world implementation of the BFG-9000...
TFA sounds like this is one guy working with consumer parts. I wonder what an American military subcontractor would want to develop this.
Do you realize the psychic trauma you have just caused by posting something that unearths memories of dodgeball in a discussion group full of nerds?
... of the copseyes from Niven's "Cloak of Anarchy". Add some of these to incapacitate and you've got a menacing little bot.
a helicopter in a cage.
Now we just need flying broomsticks.
It just has to be miniaturized a bit.
Phantasm IRL finally.
Aren't these the legendary Foo Fighters?
Can anybody tell me?
I was so surprised to find out that Africans haven't actually done anything at all for humanity since they came into existence.
Anybody care to prove me wrong, without shouting "Heretic"? (Sorry - "racist"...)
The best defense is a good crowbar.
I got a trojan warning from my AV on the linked site.
Perhaps they should touch base with these guys - http://techtransfer.universityofcalifornia.edu/NCD/19914.html
Wait a minute, I've seen these movies already!
WE use the word 'invent' far too lightly. It even says in the article its made from off the shelf parts. This is a reconfiguration of existing tech.
Good-bye
I for one , am not a number .I am a FREE MAN
This was on Sankaku more than a month ago: JSDF Spherical Drone “We Bought Most of the Parts in Akiba”
Does it have flappy ears and say `haro' a lot?
Anarchy parks, where there is almost no law, are patrolled by floating spheres... I guess I'm too old, who still reads Niven these days? OK, how about Bit from the first Tron? Yes! No! YESYESYESYESYES!
Mostly random stuff.
Add an extremely advanced AI and you end up with something close to what's in Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.
This looks like a remote control helicopter in a roll cage. Instead of tilting the rotor for control, it uses a far more complex system of rudders. Is there something else, or is this a slow news day? If there were design docs & instructions, this would make a cute Hack-A-Day article.
...will be returned to the Village forthwith!
I get short clips that jump ahead after a few seconds. I tried to grab one using Download Helper but you have to be fast to grab the right one. Anybody here understand how this works well enough to suggest a solution?
The reason we subjugate ourselves to law is to better procure justice. If law does not accomplish this purpose then it m
so there are lots of quad-copters around that have roughly similar specs. this one is a uni-copter with 8 thrust-vectoring flaps, which is, I guess somewhat novel. not sure why 8 is the right number, and seems like a fairly large number, given that each requires a servo and fairly big piece of material. but since the flaps are independent, they can provide both direction and rotational control (which is why a quad-copter needs 4 fans - and why a helicopter needs a tail fan.) the spherical cage (and uni-fan) makes it seem compact and tidy, but I'm not sure the layout is actually better than a quad-copter.
Obi-wan: This time, let go your conscious self- and act on instinct.
Luke: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see- how am I supposed to fight?
Obi-wan: Your eyes can deceive you; don't trust them. Stretch out with your feelings.
When will researchers stop picking premature goals for their projects like search and rescue? I know, because I did exactly the same thing as an undergrad. Just admit it's an technological exploration and that you need funding to continue working on it.
http://twitter.com/#!/Scalarr
Beats hell out of knocking down the front door and just hoping your reflexes are fast enough. I'd put this in the "extremely clever" category, since it does seem obvious once you've seen it...but then why isn't everybody doing it?
expandfairuse.org
Just from the description, I was thinking of the large, white ball that bounds along the beach, catching anyone who tries to escape.
This doesn't look that difficult to copy. The rudder system is pretty rudimentary. The RC and UAV groups open source arduino board, firmware and sensors, from the ongoing quad projects can already handle most of it's functions. Hmmm. I'd sure like one.
The little quadrotors have been around for about 15 years now. The first time I saw one, it was made mostly of Styrofoam and could barely get off the ground. Now they go zooming around, due to better motors and much better batteries. But they still can't carry much load.
This thing looks like a nice tradeoff. There's more structure to carry around, and you only get 8 minutes of flight time, but it's not as fragile as most quadrotors. Those things are going to be popular with soldiers and cops.
The inventor is pitching it as a remote vehicle for searching in cases of disaster areas, and for military operations. For disaster areas, no arguments, but for military operations it would be of very limited usage. From the video, it is VERY loud, seems like it sounds like a leaf blower.
it would be a ball to be the operator :P
It needs a proper name. I nominate Kino.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Japan's constitution forbids a traditional military, allowing only a narrowly defined Self Defense Force, or SDF."
--www.cfr.org Japan
Make a few thousand of these, have them WIFI or maybe bluetooth capable, add solar cells, and network them all together to quickly work together. Imagine random swarms of these things flying all around a desert-like location with different swarm configurations like a line or sphere.
Add a single LED laser and imagine all the fun a remote army station could have harassing some terrorist they find--all those laser guided missiles would love to join in the fun!
Give it a couple more versions. 3 hour flight time. A camera. And stick a silenced .22 - .38 on it.
Cheap and effective.
Or a railgun that shoots small needles.....
What was the name of that game? :)
I wonder if this could work on mars? If so, then we could send a number of these on a mission (say via a falcon heavy), and then send these all over the planet. If built well enough, send several to venus, perhaps titan, etc.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Toclafane
it was already covered...a bit over a month ago on engadget and wired
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/10/japanese-ball-drone-knows-how-to-make-an-entrance-video/
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-06/10/japan-drone
http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2011/06/09/jsdf-spherical-drone-we-bought-most-of-the-parts-in-akiba/
Although the original video that Wired and Engadget used is gone...there are others on youtube such as:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQa4K-tstTg
or just use this search:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E7%90%83%E5%BD%A2%E9%A3%9B%E8%A1%8C%E4%BD%93&aq=f
either way...reminds me of those hovering/flying razor blades from Half-life 2
With the various problems Japan and its government has, the time and money it's spending developing this thing is a waste that it cannot afford. Japan has the US to cover its military risks, so it can spend its time and money on other things Japanese people actually need.
Sure, Japan's security is largely a source of wasteful US military spending, and the US is in even more trouble in these ways than Japan is. But that doesn't justify Japan digging its hole in a race with the US.
--
make install -not war
Flying silver sphere scene
Tsunami -- You can't bring a good wave down!
Boy!
Yes, make it bigger and coat it in white plastic and you're well on your way to make Rover. Be seeing you.
Now all I need is a light saber and a blindfold, and I can complete my Jedi training.
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Hope nobody attaches a spinning blade to one of these. I'm low on pistol ammo.
The world you experience is only a close approximation of reality.
jigglypuff (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jigglypuff)
Have you seen the controls of this thing ? Throwing is probably easier and more accurate. It has no camera and no sensors, so you'll need eyes on the target and eyes on the ball for the duration of the throw.
Good luck staying alive while you guide that thing in.
(besides, it's so big and slow that it makes an easy target for shooting. UAV's are so very good because of their stealth. You can't seriously hope to see a 1m plane 20 meters somewhere above your head so any action by that plane comes as a complete surprise)
Have a look at the videos! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5PXUa9itpk
"Oh dear. Containment protocols appear to have been violated."
But do they still file that under "H," for "Toy?"
Never understimate the power of human stupidity -Lazarus Long
BTW Reuters video sucks -- it does not work on Ubunutu.
:T:R:A:N:S:
If the reason for it being spherical is to allow it to recover being rolled on the ground, why not build the shell as a gömböc, so it'll always self-right?
We provide the cheapest and best dvd boxset here: http://www.dvdshopsonline.com/
We provide the cheapest and best dvd boxset here: http://www.dvdshopsonline.com/