Foreign Object Debris detection and removal systems bring safety bots to the airports
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted Aug 9th 2008 3:11AM
posted Aug 9th 2008 3:11AM
posted Aug 9th 2008 3:11AM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Just make sure you keep track of the bots themselves. They qualify as FOD too. Still, do what it takes to prevent the sort of tragedy we saw in Paris with Concorde.
i can see the headlines
"large swarm of robots takes down jet"
Debris on the runway is very dangerous. I have no doubt these systems, including their robots, will make runways safer. As always, robots can go where humans cannot.
Unfortunately in developing nations, airport maintenance is sometimes dangerously insufficient. I hope that systems like these can be deployed cheaply in areas where they are needed most.
I imagine metal robots would cause more damage to the airplane than the other crap that might be laying on the runway.
Planes are made of aluminum. They don't like having steel sent through their engines
The blades in the engine are titanium. That doesn't matter though because the bots would probably be made heavy enough so they couldn't be picked up by the intake. Also, they can be shaped so that the wheels of the planes would just push it out of the way if the bot happened to get in the way.
Now whats to prevent the bots from becoming debris? Imagine the swarm bots from yesterday getting sucked into a 747. Pretty hilarious
I must admit, death and carnage really is funny stuff. Thank gods for cable TV reruns of Worlds Most Hilarious Passenger Jet Crashes.
Will those bots dispose of humans if found? Will they chase it if it tries to run away? Because, you know, Foreign Object Debris can be practically... anything.
And remember, kids, that's FOD, not FUD. ;)
Will they case the wheels of the plane, like my dog does to cars? Can they make a robot smarter than my dog?
If your dog does that then yes they can make a robot smarter than your dog.
Your dog is a retard.
why does your dog put car tires in cases?
Cool so soon that one scene from irobot with the robots that cleaned the highway will be pretty common place then.
irobot? Some sort of new product following the ridiculously popular trend of prefixing product names with a lowercase letter 'i' in order to make them more 'cool'?
Oh, you mean I, Robot, the film loosely based on Isaac Asimov's science fiction writings.
iRobot is also a corporation that manufactures the Roomba, a robot vacuum cleaner.
Plus many other types of robots.
Now that I think of it, does it get rid of foreigners?
Just a bit of information for everyone, by regulations, aircraft with more then 1 engine (most passenger jets) must be able to take off and climb with only 1 engine operating. FOD damage on takeoff is serious, but not necessarily terminal. Depending on the extent of the damage, and which systems it affects, FOD, especially damage from metal debris, has different effects.
I know this is going to sound stupid, but they should put a gun on it, so that it can shoot birds as well. Birdstrike at takeoff is also a dangerous prospect.
There's a lot of crippling damage that FOD can do that doesn't have anything to do with engines...
Tell that to the passengers on the Concorde and in the motel on the ground that FOD brought down taking off from CDG.
"aircraft with more then 1 engine (most passenger jets) must be able to take off and climb with only 1 engine operating".
So that's not required for aircraft with only 1 engine?
Guns on them?
Yikes, then what will happen when they become conscious in 2010?
This reminds me of some kid who made something similar out of Legos... Maybe they stole his idea...
Its M-O from Wall-E
Humans make excellent FOD.
I for one welcome our runway safety robot overlords
FOD Stops Now!
great... imagine boring hackers making them view the plane as a Foreign Object!
If they add the Maglev technology to a plane and have runways support maglev tech, then planes don't have to worry about bumpy landing or bursting tires ya?
Take off and landings could be smoother and safer too!
Take off Sequence:
1. Taxi to runway with undercarriage.
2. Power up Maglev
3. Rev up to take off speed
4. Power down Maglev once airborne
Landing Sequence:
1. Descend and power up Maglev
2. Land and lower undercarriage once taxing begins.
3. Power off Maglev once undercarriage engaged.
Undercarriage is there as backup and also to reduce the stretch of road that requires Maglev support.
My two thoughts on reading this were:
1. If an FOD robot breaks down do the other robots then see it as FOD and "dispose" of it?
2. Sure they're cute and helpful now but just wait until the robot uprising when they will be armed and strategically placing FOD on the worlds runways to prevent our escape.