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It begins - First land-based combat robots entering Iraq next year

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Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
talon_fm_f.jpg


talon_asc_f.jpg


rev_asc_3_f.jpg


Carries smaller robot that can carry injured soldiers off the battlefield



ORLANDO, Florida -- Hunting for guerillas, handling roadside bombs, crawling across the caves and crumbling towns of Afghanistan and Iraq -- all of that was just a start. Now, the Army is prepping its squad of robotic vehicles for a new set of assignments. And this time, they'll be carrying guns.

As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing. In a warren of hangar-sized hotel ballrooms in Orlando, military engineers this week showed off their next generation of robots, as they got the machines ready for the war zone.

"Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip.

For years, the Pentagon and defense contractors have been toying with the idea of sending armed, unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, into battle. Actually putting together the robots was a remarkably straightforward job, said Tordillos, who works in the Army's Armaments Engineering and Technology Center.

Ordinarily, the Talon bomb-disposal UGV comes equipped with a mechanical arm, to pick up and inspect suspicious objects. More than a hundred of the robots are being used in Iraq and Afghanistan, with an equal amount on order from the UGV's maker, Waltham, Massachusetts-based firm Foster-Miller.

For this new, lethal Talon model, Foster-Miller swapped the metal limb for a remote-controlled, camera-equipped, shock-resistant tripod, which the Marines use to fire their guns from hundreds of feet away. The only difference: The Marines' version relies on cables to connect weapons and controllers, while the Talon gets its orders to fire from radio signals instead.

"We were ready to send it a month ago," Tordillos said. Navigating the Pentagon bureaucracy and putting together the proper training manuals are what's keeping the Talon stateside, for now.

Back in December 2003, the Army's 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division tested an armed Talon in Kuwait. Now, the brigade wants 18 of the UGVs to watch the backs of its Stryker armored vehicles.

Four cameras and a pair of night-vision binoculars allow the robot to operate at all times of the day. It has a range of about a half-mile in urban areas, more in the open desert. And with the ability to carry four 66-mm rockets or six 40-mm grenades, as well as an M240 or M249 machine gun, the robots can take on additional duties fast, said GlobalSecurity.org director John Pike.

"It's a premonition of things to come," Pike said. "It makes sense. These things have no family to write home to. They're fearless. You can put them places you'd have a hard time putting a soldier in."
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Source


It should be noted that these are not fully autonomous, but are generally remote controlled. Though they do have some semi-autonomous functionality.
 
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Pimpwerx

Member
Boy, to think all those hundreds of billions of dollars just buy us overblown tinkertoys, whereas private companies come up with devices a million times more innovative than this at a fraction of the cost. These look like a Battlebot rejects. :( PEACE.
 
D

Deleted member 1235

Unconfirmed Member
not long till war will be entirely televised.
 
B

B-B-Bomba!

Member
Not one of those things looks like it could put up much of a fight, let alone withstand a few good kicks (or an afternoon with one of my nieces).
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
B-B-Bomba! said:
Not one of those things looks like it could put up much of a fight, let alone withstand a few good kicks (or an afternoon with one of my nieces).
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It is doubtful if any of your nieces would get close to them.... intact anyways.
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
Pimpwerx said:
Boy, to think all those hundreds of billions of dollars just buy us overblown tinkertoys, whereas private companies come up with devices a million times more innovative than this at a fraction of the cost. These look like a Battlebot rejects. :( PEACE.
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FYI, these come from private sector government contractors - everything does.
 
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Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
Tritroid said:
johnny5.gif


Johnny 5...is alive!!
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Umm, unless I'm really, really mistaken, it's "Number 5", not "Johnny 5".

And yes, my contribution to this thread is correcting a comment about Short Circuit.
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
B-B-Bomba! said:
Not one of those things looks like it could put up much of a fight, let alone withstand a few good kicks (or an afternoon with one of my nieces).
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youd be surprised. i worked on similar robots for another company.. those things are baddass.. they can take a lot of damage.. flip themselves over if need be.. etc. they are also pretty maneuverable.

but they are mainly made for scouting or going ahead first.. troops are usually behind them somewhere.
 
G

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Radio signals you say?

How long do you rekon before one of these things kills a friendly soldier?

Plus how tough can they be? Surely any insurgant could just run up behind it, yank some wires out and steal the gun.
 
C

Crimson Dragon

Member
Dan said:
Umm, unless I'm really, really mistaken, it's "Number 5", not "Johnny 5".

And yes, my contribution to this thread is correcting a comment about Short Circuit.
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He renames himself at the end of the first one to Johnny. I never watched the second one to know if he maintains it.

I'm not even going to comment on my contribution :D
 
P

Particle Physicist

between a quark and a baryon
RiZ III said:
I thought they were already using something similar to one of these in Afghanistan.
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yup

Ghost said:
Radio signals you say?

How long do you rekon before one of these things kills a friendly soldier?

Plus how tough can they be? Surely any insurgant could just run up behind it, yank some wires out and steal the gun.
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well.. for one. i doubt an insurgent would be able to get close enough to do that.

1. these machine can kill them. and 2. soldiers are usually nearby covering these machines from a safe distance.
 
S

SteveMeister

Hang out with Steve.
Not only that, but these things are not autonomous. There's a human being controlling it. So the robot won't kill someone -- a human will kill someone USING the robot.
 
D

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
MrAngryFace said:
Dan is really really mistaken.
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Damn. Been ages since I saw the movie, and I found no mention of the Johnny quote at IMDB's quote section.

I suck.
 
T

tedtropy

$50/hour, but no kissing on the lips and colors must be pre-separated
Funky Papa said:
I'll stick with the real thing

ED209.jpg


ED209 all the way baby!
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Bah, come on. If the Robocop movies have taught us nothing else, it's that the ED-209s are clunky, unreliable pieces of over-engineered American crap. :D
 
Tritroid

Tritroid

Member
Crimson Dragon said:
He renames himself at the end of the first one to Johnny. I never watched the second one to know if he maintains it.

I'm not even going to comment on my contribution :D
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He does maintain it through the second one. And then at the end they give him gold plating ala C-3P0.
 
S

shuri

Banned
Tritroid said:
He does maintain it through the second one. And then at the end they give him gold plating ala C-3P0.
Click to expand...

Indeed, in the first one, they refer to him as Number 5
 
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G4life98

Member
I was wondering why we hear so little about ugv/ucgv tech in comparison their airborne bretheren ...since they would be more usefull in the current urban warfare situation in iraq
 
Phoenix

Phoenix

Member
Vark said:
But can a tank walk up stairs? hmm? can it!?
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Tanks don't need to walk up stairs. They level the building so that soon YOU are downstairs.

Seriously though, multi leveled treads can drive up stairs so long as the robot has a low center of gravity. That said, most 'walking' robots can barely walk down the street on a breezy day.
 
S

ShadowRed

Banned
G4life98 said:
I was wondering why we hear so little about ugv/ucgv tech in comparison their airborne bretheren ...since they would be more usefull in the current urban warfare situation in iraq
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Well it's alot more complicated to write a program that will allow a ground based Ugv/ucgv to get around things like trees or building without putting it indanger. An airbourne vehical doesn't have that problem as they mostly fly too hight to be in the way of trees or buildings. That said the machines in this thread are controled by people back at a central location and not autonamous.
 
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