Our tax dollars at work

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:13 am

<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34 ... sporter</A>

Glad to hear my tax dollars are going into something that might actually benefit the military. Say, weren't all the Segways recalled or something? Regardless, its interesting that they believe this thing will have an effective AI to do well in battle. Atleast it can chase soccer balls? Discuss!

trythebill · Post by **trythebill** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:29 am

benefitting the military? try getting something bigger than 5.56.

anyway, why would this be better than developing a tracked robot to do the same things with an already existing platform? seems like battle field terrain would be pretty unforgiving to a two-wheeled segway.

So far, the robot can chase an orange soccer ball and kick it. The next goal is to teach the robot the rules of the game and get it to communicate with human players.

nice, maybe we could be a robot baseball league going like that old nes game. it would beat watching baseball now.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:32 am

trythebill wrote: anyway, why would this be better than developing a tracked robot to do the same things with an already existing platform? seems like battle field terrain would be pretty unforgiving to a two-wheeled segway.

I was thinking the same thing about it as a terrain problem. The Segways were recalled in the first place because it sometimes would fall over. No problem since theres no human user, but on anything besides normal concrete, I imagine it hard when you consider how uneven alot of the terrain is, especially where we're fighting now. The best they can hope for is that this thing will be useful for clearing, but then how would it ever target or be able to tell a target from a hostage or civilian. Sounds like a waste of money personally.

Radoteur · Post by **Radoteur** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:36 am

They might be useful on military bases. You know, for the clerks.

johnnygothisgun · Post by **johnnygothisgun** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:41 am

Screw the fat kid, team, we've got a new left wing!

Doyle · Post by **Doyle** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:41 am

Heh. They can remove walking from Basic now.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 4:43 am

Maybe their planning on adding soccer to Basic? It might make the US army more popular with Europe.

InvisibleMonkey · Post by **InvisibleMonkey** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:11 am

That has got to be the worst idea ever. Just making our military fat, it's a plot against America.

Menno · Post by **Menno** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:08 am

"or following humans around while hauling their gear."

Haha, cool, it's like having my own fucking squire.

"My personal reason for liking (this program) is we would love to get more Segways at universities. The more we have our technology among the tech world, particularly the young geeks, it could only help us."

Nice way of talking to the people he's trying to appeal to, calling them "geeks". Haha, why not just say "The more we have our technology among the tech world, particcularly those young acne-infested virgin geeks who live in their parents basement, it could only help us."

From what I read though, and I may be mistaken, but the Pentagon is developing software for autonomous sytems; it doesn't necessarily specify if it's all being spent on the Segway. I'd have to see this thing in action, and maybe with time and alot of work, especially if they work all the bugs out, it could be useful in many situations.

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:12 am

Menno wrote:it could be useful in many situations.

Like the world cup finals.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:32 am

I don't know if this has much to do with this all, but I'll contribute it nevertheless:

I've seen some of those battle robot prototypes for urban warfare / house investigations and normal battlefields. There were two of these prototypes:

The one doing the house investigations looked like a stereotype of a robot. It went on small wheels and some goofy levers that helped it to climb stairs. It had cameras all over it, infrared scanners and sensitive noise sensors. Oh, and a gatling BB-gun (this was just for the testing, it's gonna be a real gun in the final version, of course). It went through the house and made sure it was free of enemies and booby-traps. It was followed by another, smaller robot which ensured that no one went to the rooms that had been marked as clean. There were two modes in the robot: the green mode meant it would alarm the "controller" who saw everything through those cams and scanners. The red mode meant it would shoot intruders at sight. The "controller" nearby switched those mods on and off and if needed took total control of the robot.

The second one was a CPU attached to a military Hummer vehicle, with an M60 mounted on top of it. The computer controls both the movement of the car (which was pretty simple, it was like making A Need For Speed -game, the designers described it) and the firing of the machinegun. This prototype could also be controlled both manually and by computer's AI, depending on the situation. This one looked real cool, because the Hummer could overcome most of the obstacles and if the computer calculates it's too hard to climb it decides an alternative route to the destination. And the machinegunfire was extremely accurate. The computer calculates the speed of wind, recoil and other things affecting accuracy and minimizes everything. It was ÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¼ber cool.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 2:57 pm

I think it's pretty dangerous. I mean, no program is bug-free or hacker-proof, so how can you be sure this nifty little robot won't shoot you with the gun he is carrying for you?

I mean, it's a good idea if you can get it running perfectly, but nothing is perfect, especially not before major testing, and I'm sure testing war robots will cause plenty of stupid accidents and injuries.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 5:38 pm

Wolfman Walt wrote:
Menno wrote:it could be useful in many situations.
Like the world cup finals.

Or kicking the heads off people.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 6:42 pm

The Japs will have better robots then we do anyway.

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 7:42 pm

Sucks to be you. The worst Canadian tax dollars do is to fund $2 Billion gun control programs and $5 Million trips for Jean Cretien.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 8:42 pm

Yea, you forgot those 4 soldiers we sent to Afghanistan and that helicopter we smashed onto our own destroyer, which cost like fuckin 5 millions of repairs.

I don't pay taxes yet tho, I am still considered a student.

(I love socialism)

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 10:26 pm

(I love socialism)

I bet you do. You'd probably like Josef Stalin too. He'd be your friend for a while, then get this annoying paranoid delusion and kill off 20 MILLION OF HIS OWN FUCKING PEOPLE!

Ain't Socialism grand?

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Tue Dec 02, 2003 11:23 pm

maybe they pissed on stalin's grass or kicked his dog. i can see killing 20 million to find the one fucker who kicked my dog.

MurPHy · Post by **MurPHy** » Tue Dec 02, 2003 11:45 pm

maybe they pissed on stalin's grass or kicked his dog. i can see killing 20 million to find the one fucker who kicked my dog.

If that many people pissed on his grass It'd be either dead or really friggin' high! (I cannot remember whether pee is good for grass or bad for it)

But your're right. Killing 20 million to kill one guy is an acceptable cause. His poor dog! :lol:

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 2:56 pm

Murphy, you are such a meatbag (dixit Exitium)
Your blind socialism hating is stupid.