Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Styxx on December 02, 2004, 01:13:18 pm
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So, you thought it was all fiction, huh?
(http://www.defensetech.org/archives/images/talon_fm.jpg)
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001246.html
[q]ARMED DRONES ROLLING TO IRAQ
Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start.
Now, the U.S. Army's squad of robotic vehicles is being prepped for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns.
As soon as March or April, eighteen Talon robots armed with automatic weapons are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq, as part of the Army's Stryker Brigade.
talon_asc.JPGAround the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, Florida, military engineers this week at the Army Science Conference showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the warzone.
"Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sergeant Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, two-and-a-half foot tall robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled into its mechanical grip.[/q]
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Gimme a shotgun and a chainsaw over that **** any day.
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Did they not learn anything from the film? Granted self-intelligence from a lightning bolt is unlikely - but I hardly trust these things to be rolling around...
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Great. I'd love to be killed by a robot. :rolleyes:
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I think itwould be a good way to save a lot of lives from ambushes by sending those things into a hostile areas first. I wonder if its remote controlled? If not lets just hope they dont get too smart. We wouldnt want robot rebelllions like in the terminator now would we? :)
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Bet they are running Windows CE - Hack anyone? :nervous:
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Wouldn't be surprising.
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Originally posted by MatthewPapa
I think itwould be a good way to save a lot of lives from ambushes by sending those things into a hostile areas first. I wonder if its remote controlled? If not lets just hope they dont get too smart. We wouldnt want robot rebelllions like in the terminator now would we? :)
Yeah, I'm sure the locals would make a big deal about the 'bots killing someone that was surrendering.
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Why do I get vision of scores of robot refugees rolling across the Iraqi deserts shouting 'No Disassemble!'.
I doubt they would work on AI alone, software that could identify threats from friendlies would be so complex it would be slow and buggy. It's probably using a camera and an RC unit, which means as soon as you know where the camera is, you can steal one with nothing more than a piece of cloth ;)
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Doomed to fail
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As bomb disposal and sniper-sniffing, these things are useful, but putting a huge gun on them seems pointless to me, I mean, what's the range of an FFAR pod? Is it going to make any difference at that range whether it is a human or a Robot firing, they're going to be out of the range of most small arms fire anyway.
Edit : And more importantly, when in the hell did the entire world start spelling 'Striker' wrong?
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What happens if a rebel sneaks up behind it and nicks the gun?
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This is some kind of telepresence right? This is cool.
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And so future begins, it's interesting see where military Robot technology is going in future
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Originally posted by aldo_14
What happens if a rebel sneaks up behind it and nicks the gun?
Exactly Aldo, even heat sensitive equipment can be blinded by a blanket. That's one of the reasons the Sandstorm delayed the advance in the first place. What seems to me to be the sensible move would be to, rather than spend $2m on something with a huge gun and tracks, spend $0.4m on something with a heat-camera and 'Stairwalker' tracks. You could send those into buildings with suspected snipers, if someone attacks it or blinds it, you know you've found your man, most likely, and if it does get destroyed, it's much less money lost ;)
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You could always have it rigged to self-destruct if you try to blind it. ;) Have it set off a bunch of claymores in a hemispherical arc. :drevil:
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LOL I thought of that myself, but the second thought that came along was 'and if this guy is using a family with a couple of babies as shields?'. I'd rather not be the person who had to press that button :(
But yes, some kind of 'self destruct' device would work, but would still render the device as useless to the US forces as to those trying to steal it, this still costing money :(
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Originally posted by Flipside
Exactly Aldo, even heat sensitive equipment can be blinded by a blanket. That's one of the reasons the Sandstorm delayed the advance in the first place. What seems to me to be the sensible move would be to, rather than spend $2m on something with a huge gun and tracks, spend $0.4m on something with a heat-camera and 'Stairwalker' tracks. You could send those into buildings with suspected snipers, if someone attacks it or blinds it, you know you've found your man, most likely, and if it does get destroyed, it's much less money lost ;)
That's another thing that occured to me - how's that thing going to handle stairs? Have these people never seen the Daleks?
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more likely have a rather potent electrical charge running through the weapon so that anybody that tries to grab it wiil be mildly electrocuted and give the operator the time to determine IFF status and fire if necessary.
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The thing is though, look at the guns on those things, if they fired at something close enough to touch them they'd blow themselves to pieces. These things look designed to roll out and sit in the middle of sniper zones, they probably scan the windows for heat sources before the soldiers move across. However, those weapons look a little ummm. 'indiscriminate' for that job.
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Gimme a trained US soldier over one of those things any day.
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They could catapult them at snipers....
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Originally posted by Flipside
The thing is though, look at the guns on those things, if they fired at something close enough to touch them they'd blow themselves to pieces. These things look designed to roll out and sit in the middle of sniper zones, they probably scan the windows for heat sources before the soldiers move across. However, those weapons look a little ummm. 'indiscriminate' for that job.
Based on US tactics in Falluja, I doubt that would be a major concern.
(i.e. beseige city and try to remove possible civillian casualties, then flatten the place)
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I think you've got the "flatten" and "remove civilians" stages in the wrong order though.
Another day, another step closer to the world of Deus Ex. I just hope I can get my heavy weapon skills upgraded in time.
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On a sort of a side note, thinking about the IR cameras that the American military so loves. I actually find myself wondering how affective those things would be at certain times of the day.
In Europe and much of the US a human body will stand out against architecture at almost any time of day as a bright red silhouette. However, for large sections of the day in Iraq, the ground and buildings would get warm enough to blur that image considerably.......
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They don't really use them in the day, I don't think :p. At least not the hand-held ones.
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2 sheets with a bit of tinfoil between them renders them useless, day or night. Proper thermal cloaking material isnt hard to come by, its not exactly high tech stuff and afaik can be bought legally in the US at least. Quite effective too
(http://www.bemeyers.com/images/thermal.JPG)
As for the robots, this is what happens to M1 Abrams in iraq:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1/C20254.mpg
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Two words: Sky Net.
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That is so freakin cool
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The trouble with thermal-protective clothing is that, in the process of keeping all the heat in, it keeps ALL the heat in.
You get ****ed up pretty quick.
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Ahh, so this is where the Battlebots went.
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best, and only as far as i can see use for this thing is if some soldiers are pinned down they can send one of these out by it's own to attack the enemy. Only problem is that odds are they wont have one.
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And a grenade is cheaper.
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A mexican private who signed up to get his green card is cheaper still.
I think nations should decide wars based on gladiatoral duels between robots, Battlebots style. No bloodshed, and lots of entertainment.
that is until the robots get tired of killing each other for our amusement and rebel, then we're screwed, especially considering everyone got rid of their militaries.
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Or some evil Madman hacks into them and uses them to enslave mankind.....
What would one actually do with mankind if they did manage to enslave them?
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Orgy.
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Slave orgies are indeed good, well said... :)
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There are only ever three reasons why anyone wants to enslave mankind:
1) Make them build big ****ing monuments and ****
2) Improve the world through forced harmony
3) Food
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Yet another example of why I don't like the Murricans - they blow vast amounts of cash on something completely ****ing useless. How exactly are these things even going to hit anything? Last time I checked, your average Iraqi guerilla doesn't stand nice and still so that people can aim at him. How the hell is one of those things going to get a bead on a target, let alone track it, lead it if necessary and fire before said target ducks behind a wall? There's just no way you can do that by remote control. OK, with the rocket launcher, walls aren't that big a problem, but the machine gun one is worse than useless. It's basically an ammo delivery system for the guerillas...
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Yeah, the things seem pretty lightweight. I thing they should go the ED-209 route..
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Screw the ED-209. I want a freaking Marauder.
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Originally posted by an0n
There are only ever three reasons why anyone wants to enslave mankind:
1) Make them build big ****ing monuments and ****
2) Improve the world through forced harmony
3) Food
or if you go the Futurama approach....
4) Mobile Oppression Fortress! ;)
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(http://aldo14.f2s.com/temp/terror.jpg)
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Nah, this is what the US Army needs:
(http://www.jeffbots.com/b9-b.jpg)
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You know, come to think of it, George Bush sort of looks like an over-weight Dr Zachary Smith ;)