Frenzied Wombat
Potato del Grande
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Gender Integration in the Infantry, and how Robots fight Misogyny
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Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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For me personally or the DoD?
To the first, because that's how I'm currently employed and because I live in Detroit. To the second, there will always be stuff ground robotics can do that flying can't. And vice versa of course.
Palum
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Well barring some outrageous scientific advance, the issue with flying vs. ground robotics is simply that flying robots are always using energy to keep themselves aloft in some fashion even if you could solve all the other problems. Because otherwise, yea a quadrotor is much more convenient because you basically ignore terrain and balance issues entirely.
khorum
Murder Apologist
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Yeah on the halt you can ground the drone and have solar recharge it, things like that. The field is growing huge compared to ground robotics. I get why you want more ground Tuco and it isn't bad but I think for once the DoD wants to "skip a tech generation" and go straight to flying as much as possible.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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I think everything that's not specifically designed to carry cargo will go that route but I don't know how you can get around the massive energy cost of adding pounds in cargo onto drones if you want to keep them close-support focused (ie, quadrotors). I'm sure we'll have automated resupply drones soon enough which will be able to use composites and massive wingspans to get lift but those don't avoid obstacles very well.
Palum
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For drone warfare, sure. I mean it's only a matter of time. Compare that retarded OICW to having a swarm of 30 gun-drones that just streak towards a building and run through windows and hallways shooting everything.
Or better yet, grenade-drones that have a little speaker that says 'Allahu Ackbar' before detonating in the face of the enemy.
Or better yet, grenade-drones that have a little speaker that says 'Allahu Ackbar' before detonating in the face of the enemy.
Had a friend strap some C4 to a drone and connected the det cord to some aux port and fly it into a house in Iraq that was a confirmed bomb maker. Yeah turns out that guy took some work home. Was a big boom.
What you aren't thinking about with drones is the "fast mover" ones that can be flying holding patterns above your location with supplies that have quick chutes that deploy as late as possible on descent.
What you aren't thinking about with drones is the "fast mover" ones that can be flying holding patterns above your location with supplies that have quick chutes that deploy as late as possible on descent.
Erronius
Macho Ma'am
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Tuco is the one with hands-on industry knowledge, but there are still areas that I'd think ground based robots would excel at. Being able to let ground drones sit idle or loiter in an area w/o necessarily needing them piloted and running at full power might be one advantage. Or giving them automated tasks that air drones can't do, like mapping out minefields or having them actually /suicide mines (like, think cheap aquatic ALLAH AKBAR drones that we can send out to remove South Korean naval mines). Area denial might be another area: say, put a drone with a machine gun in a field. It can sit there for extended periods of time, possibly without direct control or oversight (think sitting inactive until something within its observed area triggers motion sensors). Have it send out an alarm so Joe Schmoe can log into it remotely and see if there is a credible target or threat, and then choose to engage or observe. Or garrison borders with UGVs, armed or unarmed. One of our biggest challenges in Iraq was not having the manpower to seal the borders, and if a unit moved in and cleared a border town, as soon as they left insurgents would move back in.
I'd like to see ground drones mated with small aerial drones. Drive the "mother" drone out somewhere with a complement of aerial drones that it can launch and recover. Maybe use that mother drone (UGV or otherwise) to collect and recharge those drones (assuming some sort of ability for aerial drones to return). I mean, I dunno. Someone will think of something revolutionary, but at times I think what will be truly revolutionary will be the role/use that they come up with for drones rather than some sort of futuristic piece of tech on it's own.
Also, Israel + UGVs. That shit is coming.
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Kaman K-MAX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
TerraMax (vehicle) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theyre already here. I think the reason they havent been fielded faster is due to institutional inertia/prestige. What F-15 or Chinook pilot wants to give up their F-15 for a simulator?
TerraMax (vehicle) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Theyre already here. I think the reason they havent been fielded faster is due to institutional inertia/prestige. What F-15 or Chinook pilot wants to give up their F-15 for a simulator?
Lithose
Buzzfeed Editor
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As far as I knew, units are carrying pen drones more and more now. Since they are dirt easy to control and the cameras on them are crazy good, even tiny. You do have to wonder when some grenades on soldiers will be replaced by tiny drones carrying explosives. The small quadracopters can hold a couple pounds, and its really easy to control. I'd have to imagine it is only a matter of time before weapons like that become standard issue. (Single use, very precise drone explosives.)
Now this could be amazing. They could bring back fuel. They could mate up and tether in as solar panels to charge themselves and the ground drone.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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There's no doubt that drone warfare is a huge field and a big focus on DoD research. I'm not a military strategist or warbuff, but I feel like drones are the modern military's response to insurgency warfare in urban/desert/mountainous environments. There are some incredible advancements in perception and computing technology that will enable fleets of quad copters. But there's always going to be a need for ground robotics, it's not a stopgap until UAVs are better.
No, autonomy is finally getting big in the automotive industry.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I've seen this before and it's pretty fun because it combines the advantages of both platforms. I'm on a project now that is ALMOST perfect for this but has a few aspects that make it impossible.