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A Drone Helicopter That Can Land On a Moving Truck
garymortimer writes with a story (the accompanying video is worth watching) of an unmanned helicopter than can automatically land on a moving surface. Though it's shown landing on a bed of a moving truck, the real purpose is for sea-based use: "This automatic system for take-off, landing and deck-landing of UAVs is the fruit of the joint expertise of Thales and DCNS. Thales is responsible for the positioning system and its interface with the UAV system, the supply of a UAV demonstrator system and slaving of the flight path along a trajectory. DCNS is responsible for predicting the vessel motions, the harpoon system as well as the interface and integration with the vessel."
http://xkcd.com/652/
"We live in a world where there are actual fleets of robot assassins patrolling the skies. At some point there, we left the present and entered the future."
I'm not sure what it's like in the AU, but over here on Cybertron it makes the news when one of our robots dies extraplanetarily, or even when one gets hurt, and then again when their chassis arrive back home. Too many mechanoids (eg more than 0) getting killed makes war unpopular. The press only tags along because reality TV is popular there, and we don't really hear about any of the "organics" getting killed anyway. If it was all meat-sacks on the front line then war wouldn't seem so unpopular to the average viewer... hell it would almost seem like a sport with appropriately mounted cameras and is probably less graphically violent than most recycling plants/junk yards.
Having pain-slaves on the front line could change everything.
1. Attach cable from ship to the helicopter. 2. Helicopter goes to full throttle. 3. Make cable as taut as possible. 4. Pull the helicopter down onto the deck. Under these conditions if the deck suddenly rises up a couple of feet the helicopter will respond by rising up a couple of feet too. This is how the US Navy does it today.
Yeah, like opening you up for war crimes and really horrible mistakes.
Someone piloting this thing from hundreds (if not thousands) of miles away, or a completely automated device, brings with it the possibility to really screw up. Hell, from the sounds of it, the automated drones are already inflicting more civilian casualties than they should be ... they don't sound like they're being used judiciously enough to prevent it. It would seem that Pakistan can attest to that fact.
At the very least, I don't think we want war to "seem like a sport" ... it's serious business, for high stakes. It's not some game. I'm all for saving lives, but automated warfare is something which gives one pause for concern. If you make it too arm's length, you risk losing sight of what you're doing ... if it's just a game, why not strafe that schoolyard for the hell of it?
Having your people get killed has always been "unpopular" ... it's not supposed to be "popular", but it might be a necessary thing to protect others.
And, for the record, pretty much every Canadian who has been killed overseas gets news coverage and attention. No country likes to bring home dead soldiers ... but I don't know that I'm entirely cool with the "kill 'em all and let God sort it out" approach that seems to be happening with some of these automated drones. Way too many civilians are ending up as "collateral damage".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.