Army orders 24 new sentry-bots, Judgment Day moved up two months

Sure, you laughed yesterday when you heard professor Noel Sharkey warn against the impending, apocalyptic man vs. machine battle that was to come, but this news may have you singing a different tune. A pilot program in Nevada which employed robotic sentries to patrol Hawthorne Army Depot is getting an upgrade: 24 brand new drones called MDARS, or "Mobile Detection and Assessment and Response System." The $40 million purchase will nab the Army diesel-powered robots which operate at speeds up to 20 MPH, use RFID tags to keep track of locks and barriers, and can run for 16 hours without refueling. Though the bots have been tested with automatic weapons, these new versions will be equipped with non-lethal armaments, thus making them considerably less deadly when Skynet goes online.

[Via Wired]

[cirian1975 @ Feb 29th 2008 2:16AM]

johnny 5 got ugly

[Nick @ Feb 29th 2008 9:51AM]

Johnny 5 got himself some steroids.

[someguy7234 @ Feb 29th 2008 2:19AM]

Looks an awful lot like a power wheel... except you know.. the whole gun thing

[Nathan @ Feb 29th 2008 3:46AM]

What? You never got .50 mounted on your Pow-Pow-Power Wheel Jeep Wrangler?

As I get older it becomes increasingly more obvious how screwed up my parents were...

[Jack @ Feb 29th 2008 5:59AM]

obviously an optional extra

[Darwin @ Feb 29th 2008 2:26AM]

"thus making them considerably less deadly when Skynet goes online."

...right up until it arms itself with deadly weapons.

[Wwhat @ Feb 29th 2008 6:11AM]

It probably just tasers you continuously until you are a goner, or tasers you until you are down then drives over you, skynet is clever you know.
(I'm guessing they went with tasers at this point due to the range mentioned)

[Izzy @ Feb 29th 2008 7:22AM]

I was thinking rubber bullets. Probably shot at 600 rounds per minute. Just like a swarm of killer bees. One might not kill ya, but 600 will.

[Nick @ Feb 29th 2008 9:56AM]

it should be able to spray its victims the Evil doers with gas before tasing them.

[sully @ Feb 29th 2008 10:18AM]

@ wwhat

bro?

[webon @ Feb 29th 2008 2:26AM]

I bet they thought running over you wouldn't count as non lethal either huh

[Walid Dahdal @ Feb 29th 2008 2:45AM]

This is why i love engadget what a funny article Skynet LOL

[DELINQ @ Feb 29th 2008 2:45AM]

Has no one at the pentagon seen Maximum Overdrive?

[DragonCoding @ Feb 29th 2008 2:57AM]

Last time I checked Skynet was online...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skynet_%28satellites%29

[Mars Or Bust @ Feb 29th 2008 3:03AM]

This is nothing...talk about tempting fate, the brits launched a spy satellite with the name "skynet"...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6434773.stm

I, for one, look forward to licking the metallic boots of our robot overlords.

[Amsterman @ Feb 29th 2008 4:28AM]

We're one step closer until a cyborg from the future tells us,"I'll be back."

[Barion @ Mar 1st 2008 8:59AM]

The British Skynet predates The Terminator by 15 years.

[Reader @ Feb 29th 2008 3:01AM]

We have Arnold Schwarzenegger AND Will Smith. Both have proven their worth in the human vs. robot war, I think we're fine.

[Reader @ Feb 29th 2008 3:01AM]

Oh and I forgot the most important of all, Keanu Reeves.

[ethana2 @ Feb 29th 2008 3:35AM]

Remember, the robots running with code /you/ have access to are on your side. The ones with the apple logos on their foreheads are arguably on your side too.

Man, it's sad when someone outside your company gets a hold of your internal software update servers, isn't it?

[John @ Feb 29th 2008 3:03AM]

*sigh*...I for one...ahh...I'm beginning to loose my faith in humanity.

[ethana2 @ Feb 29th 2008 3:29AM]

Wait, you think you're alone? Or do you mean beyond our politicians?

[Wwhat @ Feb 29th 2008 6:15AM]

Well it is used to guard against jokers getting at the weapon stashes, so that's not a bad use for a robot if you wish to use robots.
In fact it's reminiscent of your strategy games like C&C and 'supreme commander', set waypoints and what to guard and go have cocktails.

[octoberasian @ Feb 29th 2008 3:30AM]

Ever notice how they have a somewhat ancestral resemblance to the T-1 units in Terminator 3?...

That's something to think about.

[keithhh @ Feb 29th 2008 3:38AM]

That actually does remind me of the early model robots in terminator 3... which is kind of scary and cool at the same time.

[r3loaded @ Feb 29th 2008 4:01AM]

I, for one......ah, forget it!

[KL @ Feb 29th 2008 6:40AM]

I have **never** read a witty "I, for one, welcome our xxxx overlords" line.... just quit it, people. You're automatically lame for even trying.

[r3loaded @ Feb 29th 2008 7:57AM]

You're automatically lame for completely missing the sarcasm that dripped from the last post.

[Captain Drew @ Feb 29th 2008 5:23AM]

It still looks like something cobbled together at a drunken defense contractor Christmas party. Come on guys: reduce the target exposure of those tires, ditch all those target-rich flat surfaces, put the security camera back down in the parking garage from where you stole it and design a proper one into the thing... gee whiz.. I mean, show a little more effort! ;P

[KL @ Feb 29th 2008 6:16AM]

It needs a pyro nearby to help spy-check.

[Wwhat @ Feb 29th 2008 6:18AM]

Little issue though, it uses RFID tags to orient itself, so all the enemy or person sneaking in has to do is throw a copy of an RFID tag and it'll get confused or reroute, the technological equivalent of the steak over the fence against guarddogs.

[Ian @ Feb 29th 2008 2:35PM]

which if youve seen mythbusters doesnt always quite work! :)

[Wwhat @ Mar 1st 2008 12:54AM]

I wonder if a large moving plastic bubble would befuddle it.

[An Sealgair @ Feb 29th 2008 6:30AM]

One day, my son will be killed defending my town by the successor to this model. Cool.

[Roger Fitch @ Feb 29th 2008 7:36AM]

skynet was here a while ago!!: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7095344.stm

[ez @ Feb 29th 2008 7:22AM]

To make truly intelligent robots would be at once man's greatest achievement and nightmare.

[FRZ @ Feb 29th 2008 8:34AM]

Then in your own words would you say humans are doom to destroy themselves? They made all the weapons and atomic bombs, now all they need is to write a program, so call "AI", to use them.

[ez @ Feb 29th 2008 1:29PM]

I think you would literally need Robot laws straight out of Aasimov to prevent robots with superior intelligence from taking over the planet. Of course, anyone who has read those novels (or god forbid seen the Will Smith movie), will understand that it is impossible to eliminate the possibility of robots breaking those laws (either due to mischievous humans or faulty programming). I've always thought we need to carefully monitor what the Japanese are doing with robots. It seems to me they mask the robotic intelligence with cuteness ("female" violin players or floppy-eared puppies), but just imagine an army of ED 209 robots with true intelligence. Why would they listen to us mere humans?

[ghex88 @ Feb 29th 2008 7:48AM]

I pray that the engineers are smart enough to plant some sort of self destruct mechanism inside so it can be destroyed when it goes wild.

[MrBoJangles @ Feb 29th 2008 11:43AM]

Yes, that's just what we need.
Kamikaze robots taking out groups of people with them.

[Usernumbernine @ Mar 28th 2008 2:26PM]

Thus creating the first lot of automated suicide bombers.

[Dave @ Feb 29th 2008 8:30AM]

If it's a drone, why does it need headlights? It could just use night vision, or lazerz, or whatever.

[Lergnom @ Feb 29th 2008 8:58AM]

I'm with Cap'n Drew - get a company like GM to design and manufacture a _real_ sentry bot. They could call it the BOLO division.

[xrayzwei @ Feb 29th 2008 8:54AM]

Pixar called, they already have a trademark on Tow MDARS.

[Malina @ Feb 29th 2008 10:06AM]

I want to know how it classifies something as a threat. So if I put my foot 1cm over some invisible line, will I get tasered until my heart fails? If I vigorously wave my arms 10 miles away from an Army base, will a tactical nuke drop out of the sky? If I say I don't much care for the President in the presence of this drone, will I be doused with some yumlicious mustard gas?

[Sporkinum @ Feb 29th 2008 10:23AM]

Put down your weapon, you have 20 seconds to comply! (ED-209)

[Chapel @ Feb 29th 2008 10:49AM]

I, for one, welcome our new robot masters

[Moses @ Feb 29th 2008 11:28AM]

The end is near.

[MrBoJangles @ Feb 29th 2008 12:03PM]

The headlights could be used to blind the enemy.

Or even better, they could use those new disorienting lights that make you throw up.

[sjpeters79 @ Feb 29th 2008 4:15PM]

This thing can easily be defeated with the use of paint ball guns. Blind it and then rush it.