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Science & Technology
The Far-Reaching World of DARPA
2006-04-02
A rocky foreign terrain. Platoons of remotely controlled cyborg-insects sniffing out landmines, transmitting their location back to human handlers.

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Back in the lab, work is well-advanced on a biomimetic underwater robot that the agency calls the "robolobster." It mimics the action of its organic cousin, scurrying along the ocean floor, looking for mines and buried bombs.

Then, there's "BigDog," a "robotic beast of burden" that's being developed to haul over rough terrain at least 40 kilograms of supplies that soldiers have to carry.

And not least, the Raptor project, a "marsupial" robot aircraft that will command a squad of roving robots. In the military scenario, Raptor would be airdropped into enemy territory and, like a kangaroo spilling out her young, would release a squad of small robots. They would traverse unknown terrain using night vision lenses and laser radar and the intelligence they pick up communicated back to the Raptor for transmission to the humans at base.
Posted by:Captain America

#10  Jehadi Poker
Posted by: RD   2006-04-02 23:43  

#9  Goat catcher.
Posted by: jim#6   2006-04-02 20:54  

#8  Give it a cow catcher.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2006-04-02 20:17  

#7  Oops, Steve's comment and mine overlapped.

Yes to all your points, Steve.
Posted by: lotp   2006-04-02 20:15  

#6  Sure, you can do that. But that doesn't mean there aren't uses for such things.

Or so a whole bunch of military planners believe. And unmanned doesn't necessarily mean unmonitored or undefended. Think UAV escorts, for instance. ;-)
Posted by: lotp   2006-04-02 20:14  

#5  You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.

The autonomous vehicles can navigate to waypoints and *also* have collision sensors to avoid and maneuver around obstacles. Sure, it doesn't help if the pass or road is completely blocked, but that works against regular trucks too. The advantage in this case is that no humans die.

Don't forget that unmanned does not mean unarmed. Remember the tele-operated gun turrets (CROWS) we discussed awhile back? A vehicle in distress could also call for overwatching air support.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-04-02 20:13  

#4  unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.

You mean useless, just dump a big rock in the road where there is no way to go around, and the truck's stymied.
Loot or destroy it at your lesiure.
Picture a mountain pass, or a hill cut, put a rock in the road, truck stops, drop another behind, repeat until you run out of trucks or rocks.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-04-02 19:51  

#3  That's true. One note, however: this year's Challenge was a bit different from the previous year This time around, they gave GPS 'way points' to reach. The previous year the vehicles had to figure out everything about their routes themselves.

From one point of view that made the Challenge a lot easier this year. However, it fits DOD's needs since in the short run, unmanned trucks that can carry goods along a route defined by way points would be quite useful.
Posted by: lotp   2006-04-02 16:36  

#2  I believe that it was Nova last week that featured a DARPA-sponsored robot-vehicle race that required traversing a tricky, twisting 150-mile course through the desert. In contrast to the prior year, in which no vehicle got more than 10 miles from the starting line, 5 (I believe) vehicles completed the race this last time around.
Posted by: Perfessor   2006-04-02 09:17  

#1  10,000 massed nanno robots. Enjoy

Eerie Big Dog

I want one of these
but plz lose the voice
and these
Amazing Climbing Critter
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/sociable/videos.html
http://www.kawada.co.jp/global/ams/hrp_2.html
http://robots.net/article/1795.html
Posted by: RD   2006-04-02 00:48  

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