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US Army Testing Robots with Shotguns
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Nov 06, 2004 12:50 PM
from the hot-lead-for-hu-mans dept.
from the hot-lead-for-hu-mans dept.
Darren writes "The US Army is testing robots armed with shotguns. The robots are called Packbots and have already seen some action in Iraq. It also has chemical sensors that detect nuclear, biological, and chemical contaminants. Maybe I've seen a few too many bad sci-fi movies, but robots with shotguns scare me."
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Dupe? Old? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Dupe? Old? (Score:4, Informative)
The BD people call it a 'disruptor' rather than a shotgun, though.
Parent
New NRA slogan (Score:4, Funny)
Now we might have to obey when the great one says; (Score:5, Funny)
cheers,
Adolfo
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Re:Now we might have to obey when the great one sa (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Now we might have to obey when the great one sa (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:New NRA slogan (Score:5, Funny)
"Guns don't kill people, mecha-manical robots do!!"
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Re:New NRA slogan (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:New NRA slogan (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:New NRA slogan (Score:5, Insightful)
-Jem
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Re:New NRA slogan (Score:5, Funny)
So what you're saying is that you're the one who will be welcoming our new humorless moderator overlords?
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Well... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
1.) Serve the public trust.
2.) Protect the innocent.
3.) Uphold the law.
4.) ??
5.) Profit?
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
1. A robot may not injure a freedom-loving and Jesus-praising Republican or, through inaction, allow a corporate-loving or anti-abortion Republican to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given it gun-loving and oil-drilling Republican except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law and the contract is given to Haliburton.
4. (Secret Directive) A robot is allowed to kill other robots opposed to the Bush-Ashcroft Law of Robotics.
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry slashdotians, I fully expect this to be modded down as either offtopic, flamebait, or troll soon enough, so don't get your panties in a bunch, mmkay?
Parent
Re:Well... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Well...Not so simple (Score:5, Insightful)
I bring this up because, the marines have a unique vehicle that should have been recognizable from the air. Moreover, this is a repeat of experiences of the first Gulf War. Supposedly these problems were solved. However, those among the honored dead are in that state due to persistent screwups. If saying it isn't so suffices for you, then you are totally misinformed or are a true believer.
We have real problems that robots alone are not going to solve. When you have idiots at the controls at the very highest levels and a media that repeats their stupid assertions. How can they ever recognize they have created a situation that can only progressively worse? Hitting the right target is not easy particularly when your enemy understands you better than we them. It appears to me we have a prescription for disaster. This is spoken by a person that believed that the Iraq adventure could possibly be successful and benefical to the Iraqi populous.
If ignorance is your guide it is all to easy to repeatedly hit the wrong targets whether by remote control, robotic or in person. That's where we are now.
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Informative)
Do you have _any_, and I mean _ANY_ evidence to back this claim up? I can provide you with one side of the equation. More than 100k people have died since the begining of the US invasion on Iraq, as a consequence of that invasion. Here's my source: New scientist [newscientist.com].
Can you point us where it says that Saddam used to kill some 200-300k annually? Or were you just pulling the '2X' out of your ass, because 'we all know he was a murderous tyrant'?
The Iraqis as a people are much better off this year.
Yeah, right. +1, Insightful.
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Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
No, he didn't, but he was quite pleased with himself when he saw the impact they'd had. And rightly so. The three laws of robotics (four if you count the zeroeth law added in later stories) are a wonderful story telling framework, but they do potentially have a serious use. There are people working on making robots that adhere to these laws in some way. Asimov should be considered the forefather of modern robotics (a word he invented) in my opinion, despite the fact he only ever told stories about them.
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Other articles (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Other articles (Score:5, Funny)
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uhoh (Score:5, Funny)
The robot is controlled by an integral Pentium based computer. It uses a modular payload system offering standard (USB, Ethernet) communications and networking.
I get this mental picture of some sneaky terrorist with a Sony Vaio sneaking up to one of these packbots and plugging in his cat5...
I totally took this the wrong way (Score:5, Funny)
I know the robots in System Shock 2 certainly didn't last long.
Many other uses! (Score:5, Funny)
Just imagine the applications:
HUNTER'S HELPER: The lazy backwoods redneck no longer need soil his clothing or even leave the house! Simply be remotely controlling his JethroBot, he can blast away offensive and dangerous deer, squirrels, and "possums" with the flick of a switch! Sure to be a top seller at Wal-Mart stores nationwide.
FOOD FETCHER: Too damned fat to get out the door and make that McDonald's run? Add the handy tray attachment (sold separately) and your shotgun-toting buddy becomes a handy way to get grub once your limbs can no longer support your weight.
PAINTBALL III - RISE OF THE MACHINES:Sick of losing to uber-good paintball players? Buy a fleet of cyborgs, swap those 12 gauges for rapid-fire paint launchers, and tell those wusses "I'll be back". Life-size inflatable Linda Hamilton [imdb.com] doll not included.
Robots with shotguns have been around a long time (Score:5, Informative)
The arms the shotguns are attached to tend to move pretty slowly, and using them against live combatants would not be the simplist task. I think the author of the article was looking to add a little more sauce than necessary. These things are most likely being used to go into hazardous situations to collect information and handle volatile/dangerous substances/objects.
Autoguns from Aliens..... (Score:4, Interesting)
Robot or R/C (Score:4, Informative)
No scarier or faultprone than a Predator drone, armed with Hellfires, being flown remotely by a pilot on the ground.
Just use the poor (Score:5, Insightful)
this is like shooting robots in a barrel (Score:5, Funny)
That sounds handy. I can't think of how many times I've found an NBC weapon and wanted to shoot it with some buckshot.
The same company that makes those cute little household vacuuming robots now has a military robot that is equipped with a pump action shotgun
So all terrorists need to do is set up one of those obstacle wire things from the accessory store, right?
(cut to scene in cave) {BAM] [BAM] "ALL YOUR CAVE ARE BELONG TO US!"
"Dammit Akbar, I thought I told you to set up the obstacle wire! Someone go take its batteries out, for god sakes."
The Pacbot weighs about 40 pounds
Okay. So does it kill terrorists by hitting them with the buckshot, or with its body that flies through the air every time it fires the gun?
And, being ankle-height, what part of the body does it aim at? Ouch...
I for one welcome our new US Army Robot overlords (Score:4, Insightful)
spammer (Score:5, Interesting)
Does ANYBODY read TFA anymore? (Score:5, Informative)
If they did, they'd discover that the article is actually an excerpt of a larger article. THAT FA was written by a nutritionist/fitness guy, with a semi-nude picture of himself and his sixpack at the end of the article.
If you try to find HIS source, good luck! There are no links to credible sources on that page.
In other words, nothing to see here. This is not a credible source; it's an anti-war rant.
...not to mention the fact that the last thing you'd install on a pacbot is a pump action shotgun, which would require a little robotic arm to work the pump. If the story were remotely plausible, it would have selected a sensible semi-automatic shotgun, not a pump.
Len.
Re:DIE DIE (Score:4, Insightful)
As opposed to the "honorable death" of blowing yourself up around people just going to work?
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Re:DIE DIE (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Die for a Robot (Score:5, Funny)
Gore has repeatedly stated that he would have thrown the terrorists in a lock box. The key to the lock box would also be safely kept away in another lock box.
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Re:Shotguns violate the Geneva Convention. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Shotguns violate the Geneva Convention. (Score:5, Insightful)
We shouldn't treat all people like human beings because we expect others to reciprocate. We must treat other people like human beings because we are the Shining City on the Hill, and we must set the example for others.
In any case, a better argument for the Geneva Convention would be Abu Ghraib: look at what a wonderfully effective marketing and recruiting tool those photographs were for Al-Qaida's global franchise...
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:4, Insightful)
And thats whats happening.
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like the mosque thing. We aren't normally allowed to attack religious buildings(why would we? It's a waste of munitions). But the moment they start using one for military purposes, like storing weapons, quartering troops, basing weapons there, etc, we're allowed to target it.
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Re:At least with the human.... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:Bots (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Simpsons reference (Score:5, Funny)
The wars of the future will not be fought on the battlefield or at sea.
They will be fought in space, or possibly on top of a very tall
mountain. In either case, most of the actual fighting will be done by
small robots. And as you go forth today, remember always, your duty is
clear: to build and maintain those robots. Thank you.
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Re:crivens (Score:4, Insightful)
The pump action would be just a single actuatior... Pull triber, activate eject mechannism.
The advantage of a shotgun is that it doesn't require as much in terms of aim.... As long as you're in the general area, you get some sort of hit. I'm expecting that the purpose of the thing is essentially cover-fire, not hunt and kill.
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Re:Robots with shotguns scare me (Score:5, Informative)
All of these robots are remote-controlled. This is no different in concept from arming a Predator RPV with missiles. You're providing a mechanical extension of a human operator the capacity to do a specific job.
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Re:100000 dead (Score:4, Informative)
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