Tomorrow's War Will be a Robo-War

Posted 23 May 2003 at 01:24 UTC by The Swirling Brain

MSNBC says that the Pentagon has OKed robo-war research. The Pentagon has approved nearly $15 billion to build and test a lethal robot fighting force. This may be stating the obvious, but the war of the future will be a robo-war. The Army will make another decision in 2008 to decide if they want to spend billions more. These robots include anything from New Nanotech accessorized uniforms for soldiers to surveillance drones to lethal 4 wheeled hunter killer mules to Nano-bot killers. In addition, the battlefield of tomorrow may include Nano "bugs" which are tiny sensors like smart dust laid all over the battlefield to give soldiers enemy position information real time. Actually the Government expects to Spend even more billions on the new robo-military to take us to the next level of robo-war. So when we watch a robot wars show on TV it may be the real thing!

Other military robot articles to mill through: CMU to make ground autonomous vehicles for the Marines, Gua rdian, Model planes now a terror threat, The direction of research.

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I guess Assimov's Robot Rules are out , posted 23 May 2003 at 13:39 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

I guess Assimov's rules for Robot behavior is out the door then.

I hope not, posted 23 May 2003 at 13:59 UTC by steve » (Master)

With war robots progressing at this rate, we're going to need some robots that know Asimov's four laws to protect us from them before long. I think Asimov's stories and Saberhagen's Berserker series should be required reading for anyone building military robots.

The Terminator Movies come to mind, posted 23 May 2003 at 16:50 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

It looks like the Terminator movies will be fortelling the future.

Bummer, they might ban radio control model planes, posted 23 May 2003 at 16:58 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

I just noticed that they are considering restricting or banning radio control model airplanes. Bummer, I've built and flown models for many many years.

Techically, you yould build a decent RC model, use a Futaba Horizon stabilizer unit, maybe a new gyro stabilizer (like novices need when they are learning) throw in a simple MCU for a controller, and set it off on a preprogrammed course. Payload depends on how big and powerful it is. If you get fancy you could throw in a camera and a DSP for image processing.

First model rockets, now R/C vehicles , posted 23 May 2003 at 18:30 UTC by steve » (Master)

What's next - will they ban Legos or robotics? What about pointed sticks - some terrorist might use a pointed stick as weapon, so obviously anyone who owns wood-working equipment must be a terrorist too. These folks are getting totally carried away. My feeling is the sooner we can get some of 'em out of office and restore a little sanity, the better. I'd like to see the whole "homeland security" thing shutdown before it turns the US into some sort of totalitarian dictatorship.

A lot of hobbyists will be ter...ists soon then., posted 24 May 2003 at 04:15 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

Well, if they do ban RC models, I'm stuck with a big pile of equipment and models. I guess I'll be a ter....ist too in that case. Plus they kill a big hobby industry overnight. More layoffs.

I assume that unless your doing military robotics that it'll be next on the list for all us other non-pros.

At this rate the DARPA Los Angeles to Las Vegas robotics event should be banned as a robotic vehicles would make a great weapon.