More Robot Grunts Ready for Duty

[seriousstan]

ORLANDO, Florida -- 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 Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns.

As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around 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, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone.
Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip.

For years, the Pentagon and defense contractors have been toying with the idea of sending armed, unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, into battle. Actually putting together the robots was a remarkably straightforward job, said Tordillos, who works in the Army's Armaments Engineering and Technology Center.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65885,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

[frank frankly]

1. we are all going to die.

ON EDIT: Anybody who thinks this is a good thing is completely insane.

[ContraBass Black]

2. That's not news.

[frank frankly]

3. why don't you go field test one of these, then?

or did you really not understand what i was saying?

[ContraBass Black]

14. I meant, it's not news that we're going to die.

That our death will be at the hands of comatbots, that is news.

[frank frankly]

18. i apologize for being rude, then. i don't like Bush having these robots

please accept my apology.

[ContraBass Black]

22. Accepted. I don't like Bush having anything.

[Marxdem]

4. Given the choice

If its between sending a marine off to die or a Machine, I'll choose the machine.

[frank frankly]

5. you are missing the point of this.

do you trust Bush with these?

do you want to kill everybody in the Middle East who is Muslim?

do you really not see what this could lead to?

:shrug:

[Jack_DeLeon]

7. Honestly...

these things are just RC cars with guns.

[Carl Brennan]

16. They do want to kill all the Muslims. You should talk to

a fundie who doesn't know you are a non-pod person. I have seen them get furious, yelling about how Islam is a foul, despicable religion, etc. and then following that up with the need to exterminate them.

I heard this from someone in his 50's and similar things from others. The US has bred these creatures, hardly human, and now they are loose.

Of course being a chickenhawk, as the proponents of these robots are, just means they will never have to fight, but they can get machines to do it for them.

All I want to see is these chickenlivered pieces of excrement called fundies reap what they sow.

[ozone_man]

11. Maybe If it were a justified war.

But we are the agressors here, in an unjustified war. There was no threat, no WMDs. We are after oil and global imperialism.

In that light, I am rooting for the Iraquis. Sending robots in for this unjust war seems like the ultimate act of cowardice.

[Jack_DeLeon]

6. This is kind of neat.

but I still want my powered armor.

[RedCon1]

10. We have little flying anti-personel mines now

that fly around looking for heat signatures. When they find one, they fly up to it and explode with the force of a hand grenade. Who says America has lost its sense of inovation?

[Carl Brennan]

17. You are one sick, very sick puppy: "kind of neat"

You never fought a day in your life. Only a chickenhawk talks like you.

[NCN007]

33. Another Heinlein fan? On DU?

[Jack_DeLeon]

35. actually I'm partial to Battletech...

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

8. Has anyone ordered...

... a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner? Same company.

[jimshoes]

9. Can they tell peaceful

protesters from angry mobs? Americans from Iranians or Australians? Wonder if they could be hacked?

[frank frankly]

12. imagine how much better this Invasion would have been with these...

we could be onto Syria & Iran & anywhere else King George wanted to go!

:puke:

[Rumba]

13. These are remotely controlled, aren't they?

It's whether the operator can tell. Of course, that's a whole other set of issues.

[ContraBass Black]

15. Completely autonomous armed ground robots?

I think not. It would be too easy to fool.

[Carl Brennan]

20. The objective is not to win but simply to reduce the body bags

coming back. To many dead make waging resource wars more problematic politically.

Winning is not important, in fact it is counterproductive, because then the perpetual war for perpetual peace fascists have to dream up some other way, or another war, to make money.

[ContraBass Black]

21. Still, for any use at all, and for every economic and strategic benefit

Save the difficulty of keeping communication open between robot and base, remote human control is the only practical method.

Onboard computer control systems would be expensive, easily broken, and easily decieved. It would be very difficult for anything other than a human to "tell the difference between peacful protesters and an angry mob" for example.

[Carl Brennan]

23. You missed my point.

There is no morality in the US campaign. It is fascists who just want to create a perpetual profit making machine and get the US population so terror ridden that they, in essence become automatons.

There is no interest in efficiency, efficacy only in keeping the war going.

[ContraBass Black]

25. Yes, I did miss the point.

But I think battlefield deployment of such an obviously bad idea would be too transparent for that purpose.

[Chicago Democrat]

19. They hook them up to X BOX

[Komrade _azul]

24. Why not by one for home defense!

What a great leap of technology! Imagine the thrill or atavistic joy of opening one of these for Christmas morning, your very own Microsoft Talon Xbot! Just picture the little kiddies all aglee with joy as they take one out for a stroll around the block or through the neighborhood.
But seriously, this is the kind of new technology that Law Enforcement would love to have for anti-terrorism. Many larger police departments already have robotic anti bomb machines that assist in defusing weapons, why not a remotely controlled sniper or SWAT robot too? Kind of makes me wonder how long it will be until new 'civilian' models appear in the hands of the LAPD or similar large city police units. It's only a matter of time before these make it to a precinct near you.

[frank frankly]

26. stay on page one

sad kick

[evworldeditor]

27. It's only a matter of time and the machines will be taking over....

Anyone want to give me odds that sometime about 2020, we'll have killbots like the malfunctioning terror machine in the original Robocop movie?

How far is it then to the machines of Terminator?

[Massacure]

28. Robots? lmao, you walk up behind it with a sledge hammer.

How much you wanna bet that a human can do a better job? Robots can't hear things or comprehend data like a human can.

[Nihil]

34. Umm right ... now go back to the article ...

> Four cameras and a pair of night-vision binoculars allow the robot to
> operate at all times of the day. It has a range of about a half-mile
> in urban areas, more in the open desert. And with the ability to carry
> four 66-mm rockets or six 40-mm grenades, as well as an M240 or M249
> machine gun, the robots can take on additional duties fast

This is a remote controlled gun platform operated by a soldier not a
dinky little pre-programmed lawn mower.

If sound is required, add two microphones and a headset for the operator.

Make it 5.1 channel sound and it will be better than an XBox - far more
realistic gibs ...

This would be science fiction not that long ago; now it is becoming
"normal" ...

[SKKY]

29. I don't know...

...Sounds interesting. The Navy uses dolphins to patrol harbors and ports. Why not this?

[ilovenicepeople]

30. Conners

Paging:JOHN CONNERS and while we're at it lets elect that Terminator guy for President next time.

[RPM]

31. waste of money....

uneducated white trash, blacks and hispanics are much cheaper than a robot - as long as those suckers keep breeding we can have human flesh soldiers for much less than robots....

... sarcasm off

[Straight Shooter]

32. The only difference between men and boys

Oh, wait, what am I thinking? These ARE boys in charge, playing with their toys.

Grown-ups, please, we need grown-ups.