Autonomous flying bot coming to a battlefield near you
By Marc Perton 
posted Feb 20th 2006 3:48PM
posted Feb 20th 2006 3:48PM
Defense Contractor BAE Systems
has demonstrated an unmanned flying robot that can take off and land vertically, fly for more than an hour, and drop a
payload in a specified location without any human intervention. The bot was tested as a system for deploying a
communications array dubbed WolfPack, which is used to jam enemy battlefield transmissions and block jamming of
transmissions from friendly forces. The unmanned bot can reach speeds of up to 30 knots, and is able to drop its
payload within one meter of a predefined target location.[Via Robot Gossip]
now..how silent is it...will the enemy detect it XD!
And yet Moller can't get his POS skycar off the ground.
That thing looks straight out of Metal Gear Solid 2...
now all we need is a giant hovering "!" to accompany it...
All they need to do is paint it like Vincent from The Black Hole: http://www.jeffbots.com/vincent.html
Looks like the flying bot thing from metal gear solid 2...
I for one welcome our flying robotic overlords...
Hey Flabby it does look like the flying from MGS2! That's too funny LOL! I hated those damn thing!
Why yes how wonderful. It could even drop mines around villages. Some nice gasses maybe?
I just don't like war stuff. It's basically gets people killed. One way or the other.
All this energy put into things that are just toys. "Why yes, Johny but it can save someones life on day!"
Yes by killing another.
Well so can a water well and a well doesn't even fly. Give me more of those and we can send these things to Domino's Pizza so they can deliver on time.
Or beter yet. Make them deliver those pizza to someone who has nothing to eat. We are fat already.
Yeah you too.
//Moralistic mood today. Somehow it never sticks though. Man is bad.
#7...If you dont like the world...feel free to leave it. So we dont have to listen to your tree huggin bitchin.
The poiunt of this is recon...not gassing people...which the US doesn't do anyway. and it wont carry weapons.
I've seen a video of one slightly bigger, and it wasn't real quiet, it sounded like a gas powered weed whacker.
4. Looks like the flying bot thing from metal gear solid 2...
that and the flying invincible thing from hyrule field in legend of zelda ocarina of time... i hated those things...
Meh. Autonomous in the air is easy, as pathfinding isn't a problem -- you just fly over the obsticle. My friend and I are making one of these that relies on GPS. Should cost ~$150 once we're done. Obviously ours won't be as big or fast, but it should do two hours -- a few miles, wind permitting. It'll be accurate to around 1-10m, depending on what the GPS can do.
ch424
@ 8
I guess for all my tree huggin' I will still make a beter soldier than you, m'boy.
As far as the military goes, you use all the gear at your disposal to fulfill your mission. Just a fact.
And I don't actually think this machine can do those things just yet. Like pointed out above, getting such a machine somewhere isn't as easy as it sounds. Winds are
gonna be blowing it around if they pick up.
I don't really care for the world, nobody REALLY does. But the point I was trying to make is that we spend way too much cash on this here toys. When so many more things aren't right.
It looks cool. But so does my gameboy micro.
And as far as your smart comments are concerned. We always need cannon fodder.
Go fetch!
:)
The CYPHER (Bot in MGS2)has actually been in service since 1997! And it flies for longer and faster than this! I think the news here is the WolfPack payload to help stop the bad guys getting HSDPA connectivity before we do.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/systems/cypher.htm
There are good - and even better - UAV's from small Enterprises, like http://www.scalecopter.de
#9 No, army of the US of A doesn't use gas. They don't need it. Hey, if depleted uranium can do the job, why use gas instead? Gas goes by if there's wind, depleted uranium makes the whole area radioactive for a couple of decades.
Get a good view on history and America has been involved in the greatest attrocities.
Look for a documentary called: "What I've learned from US foreign policy".
- Unomi -
Unomi: I think you're confusing "depleted uranium" with "uranium". Depleted uranium isn't particularly radioactive, at least by the standards of nuclear waste. This isn't surprising when you consider that tank crews basically live with the stuff.
It is however a heavy metal, making it chemically Very Bad For You, like lead, and just about anything else you'd want to make an anti-tank round out of.
I reccomend you get your history from people who disagree with you in future, you'll learn more.
To fly does not mean getting to your goal. Re-define it's shape and then see the difference.
Very Funny Postings.
Funny how a posting about a logistical tool for just about anything turns into a discussion about the use of depleted uranium.
Let's be real here. The scary thing about this little flying bobble is not its capabilities but rather the fact that technology seems to be moving in exactly the direction that science fiction writers have predicted.
Which means that all the "cool" and "scary" and "freaky" things we see in movies and books (bladerunner, total recall, running man, the island, matrix etc etc etc.) are not as far from reality as otherwise believed...
Basically, imagine a world like the 5th element or I Robot and really where are we headed?
I welcome change, but change is a little scary when your roomba might be reporting back to base about your movements or better yet recording your audio... (not that roomba would do that, its too cute to be mean right?)
:)
Helmut Annan
This is a sensor, not a gun turret, bomb, or chemical weapon. The point of a sensor is to increase situational awareness to reduce both friendly and civilian casualties. The purpose of an army is precision and the ability to focus on military targets so that we DON'T have to use nuclear, chemical, or biological warfare, and to do that we need sensors.
I guess since I work for BAE Systems, I am a little biased, but not all military technology is evil. How about GPS?