Well, I’m disappointed. It looks like a drone dogfight, which would be the only thing more robotic than the acting in Top Gun, is not going to be feasible for at least the next 25 years, according to the Pentagon… Dyke Weatherington, deputy director for the Pentagon’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Task Force, states that “there’s really no way that a system that’s remotely controlled can effectively operate in an offensive or defensive air combat requirement. The requirement of that is a fully autonomous system, we don’t have that level of autonomy yet and frankly in the roadmap that will take many years to get to.” He’s got a point there, sort of, but I also think that the speed of development of aerial combat drones is being vastly underestimated, especially when it comes to the AI. I’m not saying I think it’ll happen in the next year, but 25 years is a very, very long time when it comes to computers. I mean, 25 years ago was what, 1982? Think about the amount of change that has happened between then and now, and project it forward. We’re rapidly approaching the point where hardware is not going to be the limiting factor, and where computers will be able to operate (and interoperate) fast enough to make faster and arguably better decisions in an active combat environment than humans are capable of. The hardest part, in my opinion, is not going to be developing the autonomy: it’s going to be getting past all of those prickly ethical issues that come up when you have robots deciding whether or not to shoot at people.

BTW, the drone matchup above is the Boeing X-45 versus the MiG UCAV.

VIA [ Danger Room ]

This is a concept video of the Blackswift unmanned hypersonic bomber. It’s powered by engines which transition between turbojets under Mach 2, ramjets to get near Mach 6, and finally scramjets to put the cruise speed (not sprint speed, cruise speed) up to around Mach 10. That would give the bomber 2 hour worldwide precision strike capability.

Lockheed is currently designing a technology demonstrator of the Blackswift, designated the HTV-3X. If DARPA secures $800 million in funding for it in 2009, this thing could actually be built. Part 2 of the above vid, after the jump. (Read more…)

Most of the time, armed military robots don’t phase me that much. I mean, I can understand why they’re useful and important and generally a great idea when it comes to protecting living people. But, I’m starting to wonder if I’m deluding myself after watching this video of a concept armed rover from Robotex:

The video makes it quite obvious that this robot is designed to kill people, and do it efficiently. It’s pretty scary, if you ask me. Of course, robots like TALON SWORDS are designed to do the same thing, but the designers of those robots have chosen to emphasize both versatility and safety, while the Robotex bots do only one thing. This, incidentally, makes them about 1/6 the cost of the TALON system at between $30,000 and $50,000 each. The Robotex system currently on the market (in the pics above) mounts an $8,000 Atchisson Assault-12 shotgun, which “delivers the lead equivalent of 132 M16s. … [The robot is] two feet tall, travels ten miles an hour, and spins on a dime. Remote-controlled over an encrypted frequency that jams nearby radios and cellphones, it’ll blow a ten-inch hole through a steel door with deadly accuracy from 400 meters.”

As if that wasn’t enough, part of the system includes semi-autonomous Neural Robotics miniature helicopters, also outfitted with automatic shotguns:

I think what bothers me about all this is not the robots themselves; rather, it’s the fact that the people marketing these robots have one thing on their minds: selling armed robots to kill people and make money. Whether or not this is (in general) a good thing or not is debatable, and whether or not other companies developing armed robots are doing effectively the same thing (just less bluntly) is also debatable.

Like it or not, I can’t help but be certain that this is the future of the military.

[ Robotex and Neural Robotics ] VIA [ CNN / Fortune ]

Military supply convoys are one of those necessary evils when it comes to any major operation, and the US Army is looking to shift resupply duties over to unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) as soon as it’s feasible. Carnegie Mellon (winners of the DARPA Urban Challenge) have landed a $14 million grant to improve their “Crusher” UGV, adding a more advanced suspension system and upgrading the hybrid electric drive. The real interesting part, though, is the software, which allows Crusher to autonomously navigate through complicated and unfamiliar environments by combining GPS with a suite of onboard sensors, as well as (optionally) a little scout UAV.

The vehicle itself is already pretty burly. Weighing in at 6.5 tons, it has a top speed of 26 mph, a range of 450km, and (as you can see from the video) is quite a climber, able to move over rugged terrain with little trouble. Most importantly for the army, it can haul over 25% of it’s own weight in cargo. Now all it needs is some spinners on those six wheels and it’ll be good to go… You know, just a little bling to break up those drab army colors.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Crave ]

If you haven’t heard of RipSaw before, this thing is nuts. A sort of supercharged, all terrain tank, RipSaw’s 650hp engine can drive it from 0-50 in 3.5 seconds, with a top speed of 80 (!) mph, over just about any terrain. And now, it doesn’t need us anymore, thanks to some new GPS guidance. The video below shows several different versions of RipSaw, including a piloted vehicle, a remote controlled vehicle, and the early testing stages of a completely autonomous version. PS- Cheezy audio totally not my fault.

Yours for approximately $200,000.

[ RipSaw ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

Back in August, the Pentagon chose Northrop Grumman’s X-47 UCAV for a major airforce contract, pretty much killing off Boeing’s X-45 drone program. It’s not even December yet, and already Northrop Grumman has a “100% structurally complete” X-47 UCAS-D (that would be, Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator). All that’s left to do before it’s ready to go is subsystems installation, lots and lots of testing, and figuring out how to get it to land and take off on an aircraft carrier. Huh, looks easy enough in the video…

[ X-47B UCAS ] VIA [ Danger Room ]

TUCAV stands for Train Cable Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, which may sound a bit confusing, but the above video explains the concept well. Designed by an Israeli company called Planum Vision, the TUCAV system offers quite a few advantages, primarily when it comes to reliability and cost effectiveness. Since the system runs on rails (cables, rather), complicated autonomous navigation is unnecessary, although the vehicles (including both a little airplane and a dirigible of some kind) do have the capability to detach from the cable and fly around on their own (doesn’t seem like they can reattach, however). Power and communications to the vehicle are supplied through the cable, a much more reliable method than wireless transmission, and from the look of the video, the aerial vehicles may be able to generate lift as they get pulled along by the cable car below, saving energy. The overall design is meant to be a compromise between ground surveillance and aerial surveillance, and as such, some sacrifices are made, the most obvious one being that everybody knows pretty much where the vehicle is most of the time (since it’s usually attached to the ground cable system).

It looks to be a very reliable and inexpensive way to provide 24/7/365.25 surveillance of any fixed zone, such as a border or a perimeter. Of course, it’s a lot more convenient NOT to have to built the railway to get surveillance… But in areas where observation zones aren’t going to change, we could see a system like this in action. I mean, cool little airplanes, zeppelins, and trains? I’m sold already.

[ Planum Vision ] VIA [ TFOT ]

We’ve seen it in our popular culture for decades. Heck, even Sigourney Weaver killed the Queen Alien after jumping into a Mech-suit exoskeleton. It is fast approaching reality. These suits are not just something to give you super strength so you can help the elderly, like the one we reported on in October. The bugs are being worked out by the military so we can kill and crush enemies more effectively.

Sarcos, a Utah-based startup, has just shown a prototype robot that can work like an exoskeleton for US soldiers. It basically mimics every movement the human operator makes.
The soldier just needs to climb inside. Once within the structure, they can lift super heavy objects and do lengthy physical exercises without becoming fatigued. They are able to run, jump and even dance. They are estimating that it will take about 5 years to complete the project.

Let’s hope they lock these things up. Have you seen Full Metal Jacket? Now imagine if a disturbed private got a hold of one of these. I would hate to be in the shoes of that abusive Boot Camp Officer.

Video and links after the jump.
(Read more…)

One of the most annoying things about airplanes and helicopters is their dependence on a suitable place to land. Of course, helicopters are much more versatile than airplanes are, but they still need a large, reliably flat and stable surface. Landing any sort of aircraft on a boat, much less a moving truck, is dangerous under the best of circumstances and usually impossible most of the rest of the time. It’s becoming clear how much precision autopilots are capable of, and researchers at Georgia Tech and MIT are taking advantage of robots’ skill at flying to perform acrobatics designed to make drone launch and recovery much more versatile.

This video shows a small, autonomous helicopter developed by Georgia Tech landing on slopes ranging from 45 up to 60 degrees. Although the surface that the helicopter lands on is velcro, it’s possible to have the helicopter reverse the pitch of its rotors on landing, which would push it down onto the landing pad. Notice how the helicopter is able to recover from a missed landing in the middle of the video. Skills like this, combined with adaptive sensors, would allow a drone to land virtually anywhere, even on a non-level moving surface.

Both an airplane propeller and a helicopter rotor operate on the same principle: air moving rapidly over a spinning, curved surface generates thrust. It turns out that if you’ve got a small enough plane and a big enough engine (i.e. a drone), you can actually make a helicopter out of an airplane, using the propeller as a rotor. It’s tricky and requires a lot of fine manipulation of the wing and tail control surfaces, but autopilots excel at fine manipulation, and MIT has been able to create an autopilot program to transition an airplane from vertical takeoff, to horizontal flight, to a vertical landing:

The US Air Force actually messed around with a concept sort of like this back in the 50s. Although it was jet powered, the X-13 also took off and landed from a suspension rack. It’s worth noting that it was nearly impossible for the human pilot to accomplish this maneuver.

VIA [ New Scientist ]

All I can say is… Oops.

VIA [ Danger Room ]