Pentagon Wants Packs Of Robots To Hunt Humans
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Thursday, 23 of October , 2008 at 5:35 am
Looks like maybe I was a bit too hasty in dismissing the objectives of the Weapons Against Robots defense company earlier this week… The Pentagon is now soliciting proposals for “a software and sensor package to enable a team of robots to search for and detect human presence in an indoor environment.” Specifically, a “non-cooperative human.” The solicitation envisions a pack of 3 to 5 sub 100kg robots working in concert with a single human operator. The robots would be generally autonomous, with the ability to navigate an unfamiliar building with unknown obstacles and reliably detect the presence of humans. A person would be supervising and making decisions, but the robot pack should minimize the chances that the human might come into contact with the aforementioned non-cooperative human, who at this point is probably really freaked out and highly likely to do something drastic. Example of what I mean, after the jump.
It’s funny how the solicitation asks for a system to detect a non-cooperative human, but as for actual uses of such a system, the Pentagon suggests that “robots that can intelligently and autonomously search for objects have potential commercialization within search and rescue, fire fighting, reconnaissance, and automated biological, chemical and radiation sensing with mobile platforms.” Nothing like the Minority Report scenario in there.Anyway, based on the way the technology is developing, my feeling is that this sort of reconnaissance task is more likely to be performed faster and more efficiently with indoor micro UAVs as opposed to packs of killer robots robots.
[ SBIR/STTR Solicitation ] VIA [ NewScientist ]
Comments (3)
Category: Military
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Comment by Ironman
Made Thursday, 23 of October , 2008 at 10:38 am
Robots working in groups just generally creeps me out, it’s like the borg.
that’s why it’s sooooo cool.
anyways, how do you determine between an uncooperative human and a cooperative human?
i just can’t wait for the military to say, “there will be a human supervising, but the robot will make the decisions”
o and you know this website is called botjunkie, so when you don’t post everyday some of us get the jitters and go into withdrawl. Like seriously, I checked this page like 600 times yesterday.
Sorry if I sound like an angry junkie.
Comment by Evan Ackerman
Made Thursday, 23 of October , 2008 at 7:01 pm
Aww, I’m sorry… It’s just that sometimes, real life kicks in and I get busy, and it sucks :p
I do try to make up any posts that I miss, so just think of those rare lapses in posting as heightening your suspense ;)
Comment by Ironman
Made Friday, 24 of October , 2008 at 8:30 am
what’s more real life than robots?
