BAE Systems working on spider-bots, other ways to scare you to death

Do you enjoy gangs of tiny, spider-like robot insectoids swarming all over your house, car, or personage? If you answered "yes," you're going to love what BAE Systems is cooking up. The company recently received an infusion of $38 million from the US Army Research Lab to fund the Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology (MAST) consortium; a team of scientists and researchers hell-bent on developing an "autonomous, multifunctional collection of miniature intelligence-gathering robots that can operate in places too inaccessible or dangerous for humans." Sure, that description (and accompanying photos, straight from BAE) does give you the impression that whoever came up with this really liked Minority Report, but won't it make you feel safer at night knowing a swarm of metallic spiders are looking out for you? No? Huh, weird.

[Via The Register]

[matt @ May 1st 2008 9:03AM]

don't spiders have 8 legs

[Joshua Topolsky @ May 1st 2008 9:05AM]

Actually this has eight legs, if you'll notice on the right side, there are four. The back left leg is obscured by the one just in front of it.

[NHAnimator @ May 1st 2008 9:08AM]

I dunno. I only see 7 as well. And there are only 3 eyes. I believe spiders have like 240,000,000,000. Some scary number like that.

Spiders creep me out. Snakes I can deal with. But I've heard that for most people it's either one or the other and not usually both.

[waffles @ May 1st 2008 9:14AM]

give him a break guys.... he's not an ambi-turner. happens to the best of us

[matt @ May 1st 2008 9:20AM]

@nhanimator

shouldn't you be kissing your sister? kazakhstan is the greatest!!!

[zz @ May 1st 2008 10:48AM]

Yes, it has 8 in the original picture. But it looks like Engadget took one away to make it more scary.

[Nipponese @ May 1st 2008 11:18AM]

@NHAnimator

Most spiders have 8 eyes. Some of them have less.

[NHAnimator @ May 1st 2008 12:15PM]

Sorry. I really, honestly believed that spiders had 240 billion eyes. And they eat hobbits.

[Terpy @ May 1st 2008 1:45PM]

I'd eat a hobbit, I think they look tasty.

[Dustin Frazier @ May 1st 2008 9:09AM]

Looks like a DJ bot.

[FThorn @ May 1st 2008 9:18AM]

Tom Selleck needs to come out of retirement. Gene Simmons' nightmare has arrived.

[kicks @ May 1st 2008 9:19AM]

Well, whoevery cooked this up will then and release the bot in masses, and then commission the 'robot spider killing spray' and sell it at a very 'reasonable' price- To make lots of money of course.
Either that or just like the crawlers on alien movies, they'll attach to everyone's head, enabling whoever made this to conquer the world.

[Matt @ May 1st 2008 9:28AM]

@FThorn: I'm glad I wasn't the only one that immediately thought of that.

[Jesse @ May 1st 2008 10:11AM]

I thought of that too. Those robots scared the shit out of me when I was a kid.

[Ysleiro @ May 1st 2008 9:22AM]

Great !

I can finally live my dream of becoming 007 !

*sings to self* "Give me everything or nothing at all....."

[Raptor721 @ May 1st 2008 9:29AM]

What happens when they start replicating?

[Tony @ May 1st 2008 10:54AM]

I was just gonna post a comment, saying that the developers have been watching too much Stargate... :-)

[ED @ May 1st 2008 6:45PM]

I can hear the sound of them walking even now... I guess I'm the one who's been watching too much Stargate.

[Rene Ramos @ May 1st 2008 9:31AM]

Not like minority report !!, more like 1984 "Runaway" with Starring Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, Gene Simmons, Kirsty Alley, Chris Mulkey, Stan Shaw, and G.W. Bailey.

In the not too distant future, robots have been effectively employed in society for menial labor and for tasks considered too dangerous for people. Occasionally, a robot will malfunction and pose a threat to society. To deal with the ‘runaway’ robots, each Police district has a Runaway squad, who risk life and limb to track down and contain (or destroy) the Runaways

http://www.dvdcult.com/rev_Runaway.htm

[StinkyPete @ May 1st 2008 9:33AM]

Woohoo, one step closer to getting my own tachikoma!

[BigTim @ May 1st 2008 5:53PM]

@NHAnimator

240,0000,000,0000? Interesting choice of number. Think it's about right ;)

[Steven Garcia @ May 1st 2008 10:04AM]

When I was a kid, we played with these things all the time. They were called "Zoids."

At first glance, it looks like it has a tiny Mac logo on the top of the turntable it has on it's back.

[gad get @ May 1st 2008 8:27PM]

Turn off your TV and Computer and just gather your wits for a bit. Apparently you're starting to see the Apple logo everywhere!

[Adam @ May 1st 2008 10:12AM]

I dunno Pete, doesn't look like you can ride in these things.

"Runaway" scared the bejesus out of me when I was a kid.

[Adam Karney @ May 1st 2008 10:14AM]

Deus Ex anyone? I hope these can shoot electricity from their fangs.

[Chris in CA @ May 1st 2008 11:04AM]

Um... Does it play Doom? OMG, Please say 'no'.

[Val£ntine @ May 1st 2008 12:02PM]

auto-fail. deleting from life....

[dizzy @ May 1st 2008 11:58AM]

"Do you enjoy gangs of tiny, spider-like robot insectoids swarming all over your house, car, or personage? If you answered "yes," you're FREAKING INSANE."

fix'd

[gad get @ May 1st 2008 8:29PM]

Hey, I think you're on your way to getting this joke.

[tekdroid @ May 1st 2008 12:29PM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vsA0eX0dyw
So the US army found these not threatening enough? That's a whole lotta taxpayer money that could have been saved 'fighting terrorism' right there.

Bandai Hex bug for alllll!
(after all you paid for it, dear taxpayer)

(it also won't be used against you by your gov)

[tkn0spdr @ May 1st 2008 1:03PM]

Guess I'm a freak. I raise tarantulas and snakes. I love 'em both.

And if you look carefully you can see the top edge of the 8th leg just behind the one in front of it on the near side of that harbinger of doom... er, spider bot. :)

Thanks,
David
http://www.FloridaPets.org

[Podaman @ May 1st 2008 1:47PM]

I prefer my spiders with an upside-down man head instead of a body.

[Blaktornado @ May 1st 2008 2:00PM]

I *love* the sound of this...

[Jeff Ivester @ May 1st 2008 2:01PM]

Tail looks like it is a hover-craft type fan motor... does this damn thing fly too?

[Rob @ May 1st 2008 6:40PM]

I just asked my buddy at BAE if he was involved with this project and he could "neither confirm nor deny his involvement in that project". All I know is that he just got a considerable bonus, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was.

On a side note he did mention that "If (he) was to tell me all of the "high profile" government projects that he was working on or aware of, it would blow (my) mind - and scare (me) to death"

[gad get @ May 1st 2008 8:31PM]

Oh, fun!

[blip-blip @ May 3rd 2008 2:38PM]

did anyone even read neuromancer? gibson had braun making these a long time ago

[Dave J @ May 4th 2008 1:43PM]

I can confirm, to all of you there are 8 legs.

I'm the artist that came up with the concept drawing. The perspective has one leg in front of the other. They came to me in the beginning of working other this and told me just to come up with something cool. And yes, they told me to watch from Minority Report. Oh and the eyes? Oh well, didn't think we needed thousands of eyes, or 8 eyes, or whatever a spider has.