Robotics Blog » Military

Segway RMP 200 Bots Used To Train Snipers as Moving Targets.

Dan — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 01:31:53 +0000

Check out this video of modified Segway bots being used to simulate human targets in a live fire sniper training exercise. The bots are programmed to react much like real humans would. After a target is hit the bots are programmed to scatter.

The Segway bots have attached to them a realistic looking upper-body and wear black hooded sweatshirts. They can even enter buildings.

Ember Military ‘LANdroid’ Robot Video Update

Dan — Sun, 31 May 2009 01:14:26 +0000

'Ember', is their book-sized autonomous robot made for the LANdroid program.Ember's ad-hoc network maintains communication between soldiers on the battlefield.

Lethal Military Robots will have Ethics.

Dan — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:51:26 +0000

Military robots show no fear in the face of enemy fire, and squeeze the trigger with no remorse. But their effectiveness does not end there. These lethal robots will be built with a deeper understanding of how best to kill their opponents.

iRobot’s Tiny ‘Ember’ Bot Creates an Ad-Hoc Network for Soldiers.

Dan — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:02:37 +0000

One of Ember's duties is to keep soldiers in communication. In urban environments, buildings and angle of incidents between wireless devices can greatly affect signal propegation. LANdroids are tasked with autonomously seeking a position that keeps the network alive, while still maintaining other missions objectives

Military Robotics – A TED Talk about The Future of War

Dan — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 03:47:45 +0000

How are robots changing war? Peter Singer talks about how robots are changing how we fight wars and how robots will change the way we fight war in the future. How does using robots in war change public perception of war? With thousands of robots already in the air and on ground of warzones, what part do they currently play in war and how will they change how we think and fight wars in the future?

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pw_singer_on_robots_of_war.html

Civilization ends – Terminator Style?

Dan — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 20:21:15 +0000

So another dramatic news article title by our friends at FOX.

Autonomous military robots that will fight future wars must be programmed to live by a strict warrior code, or the world risks untold atrocities at their steely hands.

So true, but why would we program to do anything we didn’t want them to?

“There is a common misconception that robots will do only what we have programmed them to do….Unfortunately, such a belief is sorely outdated, harking back to a time when … programs could be written and understood by a single person.”
– Patrick Lin

An interesting thought, but we can only blame ourselves if we don’t know what our robots are doing. It is certainly a valid issue, though. If we are making autonomous robots, robots which act on there own, they do have the ability to do things we do not want them to if we are not careful.

I’m not going to bite into the notion that the world will end by our robots turning on us. That isn’t what I found in the “Full Report” below, either. (Although FOX news did, at least in their title).

[FOX News] [Full Report]

Satellite Collision a US Military Test? Says Who!

Dan — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 06:21:55 +0000

Orbital Express Satellite

A retired Russian General has claimed the ‘accidental crash’ between a Russian and US Iridium communications satellite was no accident. According to Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Leonid Shershnev, former head of Russian military space intelligence, the crash may really be a conspiracy – a US ploy to test the feasibility of controlling or disabling hostile satellites.Â Source: Official Russian State-ownedÂ NewsÂ and Information Agency – RIAN

You may have heard about this supposed “test” already (Above at RIAN, HERE on robots.net, and many other places on the ‘net I’m too lazy to link to). If not, you’ve probably at least heard that two satellites collided, leaving a ton of dangerous debris.

Does anyone else question the credibility of a Russian General (ret.) talking about a US conspiracy to take out foreign satellites in the State-owned Russian news agency? If you don’t, you probably should. This sounds like nothing but Russian propaganda, to me. For the hearing impared, it smells and looks like it, too.

Sure, a loosely related DARPA program may have existed, but let’s not take their state-owned word for it when they say the program’s purpose was to go out and destroy other satellites.

We’d probably never know for sure if it really was a secret US Military test. Remember,Â just because the odds were long doesn’t make it impossible. It makes it unlikely. Sometimes unlikely things happen.

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