Newsgroup: it.cultura.militare
Titolo: Army Prepares 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq

 
          Army Prepares 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq
Sat Jan 22, 8:51 PM ET Technology - AP
 
By MICHAEL P. REGAN, AP Business Writer
ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. - The rain is turning to snow on a blustery January
morning, and all the men gathered in a parking lot here surely would prefer
to be inside. But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic
sharpshooter they are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the
barrel of its machine gun pointing the way like Pinocchio's nose. The Army
is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight
in Iraq (news - web sites) beginning in March or April.
 
 
Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons
Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed
robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat
System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such
as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp.
It's easy to humanize the SWORDS (a tendency robotics researchers say is
only human) as it moves out of the flashy lobby of an office building and
into the cold with nary a shiver.
Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots
favorably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed.
They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And
there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.
But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous
killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human
operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the
robot's cameras.
"The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it's up to
half a mile a way," said Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for
Foster-Miller Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that makes the SWORDS. As
one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon seeing the robot: "This is
my invisibility cloak."
Quinn said it was a "bootstrap development process" to convert a Talon
robot, which has been in military service since 2000, from its main mission
— defusing roadside bombs in Iraq_ into the gunslinging SWORDS.
It was a joint development process between the Army and Foster-Miller, a
robotics firm bought in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is a
partnership between the British Ministry of Defence and the Washington
holding company The Carlyle Group.
Army officials and employees of the robotics firm heard from soldiers "who
said 'My brothers are being killed out here. We love the EOD (explosive
ordnance disposal), but let's put some weapons on it,'" said Quinn.
Working with soldiers and engineers at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, it
took just six months and only about $2 million in development money to
outfit a Talon with weapons, according to Quinn and Anthony Sebasto, a
technology manager at Picatinny.
The Talon had already proven itself to be pretty rugged. One was blown off
the roof of a Humvee and into a nearby river by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Soldiers simply opened its shrapnel-pocked control unit and drove the robot
out of the river, according to Quinn.
The $200,000, armed version will carry standard-issue Squad Automatic
Weapons, either the M249, which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of
750 per minute, or the M240, which can fire about 700 to 1,000
7.62-millimeter rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire about 300 rounds
using the M240 and about 350 rounds using the M249 before needing to reload.
All its optics equipment — the four cameras, night vision and zoom lenses —
were already in the Army's inventory.
"It's important to stress that not everything has to be super high tech,"
said Sebasto. "You can integrate existing componentry and create a
revolutionary capability."
The SWORDS in the parking lot at the headquarters of the cable news station
CNBC had just finished showing off for the cameras, climbing stairs,
scooting between cubicles, even broadcasting some of its video on the air.
Its developers say its tracks, like those on a tank, can overcome rock piles
and barbed wire, though it needs a ride to travel faster than 4 mph.
Running on lithium ion batteries, it can operate for 1 to 4 hours at a time,
depending on the mission. Operators work the robot using a 30-pound control
unit which has two joysticks, a handful of buttons and a video screen. Quinn
says that may eventually be replaced by a "Gameboy" type of controller
hooked up to virtual reality goggles.
 
The Army has been testing it over the past year at Picatinny and the
Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland to ensure it won't malfunction and can
stand up to radio jammers and other countermeasures. (Sebasto wouldn't
comment on what happens if the robot and its controller fall into enemy
hands.)
Its developers say the SWORDS not only allows its operators to fire at
enemies without exposing themselves to return fire, but also can make them
more accurate.
A typical soldier who could hit a target the size of a basketball from 300
meters away could hit a target the size of a nickel with the SWORDS,
according Quinn.
The better accuracy stems largely from the fact that its gun is mounted on a
stable platform and fired electronically, rather than by a soldier's hands,
according to Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos of the EOD Technology Directorate
at Picatinny. Gone are such issues as trigger recoil, anticipation problems,
and pausing the breathing cycle while aiming a weapon.
"It eliminates the majority of shooting errors you would have," said
Tordillos.
Chances are good the SWORDS will get even more deadly in the future. It has
been tested with the larger .50 caliber machine guns as well as rocket and
grenade launchers — even an experimental weapon made by the Australian
company Metal Storm LLC that packs multiple rocket rounds into a single
barrel, allowing for much more rapid firing.
"We've fired 70 shots at Picatinny and we were 70 for 70 hitting the
bull's-eye," said Sebasto, boasting of the arsenal's success with a
Vietnam-era rocket launcher mounted on a SWORDS.
There are bound to be many eyes watching SWORDS as it heads to battle. Its
tracks will one day be followed by the larger vehicles of the Future Combat
System, such as six-wheel-drive MULE under development by Lockheed Martin, a
2.5-ton vehicle with motors in each wheel hub to make it more likely to
survive.
The Pentagon (news - web sites)'s research arm, the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, also recently awarded contracts to aid research of
robots that one day could be dropped into combat from airplanes and others
meant to scale walls using electrostatic energy — also known as "static
cling."
Many of the vehicles being developed for the FCS will have some autonomy,
meaning they'll navigate rough terrain, avoid obstacles and make decisions
about certain tasks on their own.
They may be able to offer cues to their operators when potential foes are
near, but it's doubtful any of them will ever be allowed to make the
decision to pull the trigger, according to Jim Lowrie, president of
Perceptek Inc., a Littleton, Colo., firm that is developing robotics systems
for the military.
"For the foreseeable future, there always will be a person in the loop who
makes the decision on friend or foe. That's a hard problem to determine
autonomously," said Lowrie.
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/

Nell'attesa dei robot si arrangiano come possono a torturare
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/01/25/iraq.rights/index.html

 autonomously," said Lowrie.
Effettivamente è difficile anche per gli esseri umani.
Mirco

Il Tue, 25 Jan 2005 16:38:09 GMT, Mirco Romanato ha scritto:
c'è un articolo in italiano a riguardo e alcune immagini?
inoltre verranno usati ora in iraq?
 diciamo al ritiro dell'esercito USA saranno usati tali robot, anche perchè
credo che se vogliono provarli sul campo, serve un vero campo di battaglia
e la situazione in Iraq è proprio quella ideale; infatti oramai è uno
stillicidio di soldati per cui servono tecnologie per controlare il
territorio;
ad esempio a Falluja quanti soldati sono morti per catturarae uccidere
una 30ina di ribelli?
forse con l'impiego di tali robot si poteva avere un risultato migliore;
ma di sicuro non moriva nessuno;
idem per stanare i ribelli nelle altre città;
che sia la svolta di un nuovo modo di fare guerra?
non mi ricordo dove ho letto; ma le guerre nei prossimi anni 
saranno piu' che altre delle guerriglie e quindi gli USA
si stanno preparando a questo nuovo tipo di guerra?

 si stanno preparando a questo nuovo tipo di guerra?
Le guerre possibili saranno di parecchi tipi, così che gli USA stanno 
lavorando per essere preparati alle opzioni più probabili.
Il trend verso la netcentric warfare esiste in tutte le armi degi USA.
Allo sviluppo ci sono anche bombardieri e caccia robotici, sistemi di 
sorveglianza stazionari ad alta quota, e oltre a questa fanteria 
robotizzata c'è anche in sviluppo una versione robotizzata 
dell'artiglieria e dei carri armati.
Mirco

infatti fa proprio paura
http://www.robot-japan.com/Dancouga%20pictures%202/Dancougar%20sword.JPG

 dell'artiglieria e dei carri armati.
il cosi' detto esercito ideale;
certo che con una macchina a costo vite zero o quasi mi immagino quante
nuove guerre potranno piu' facilmente permettersi gli USA;
credo che pero' anche per il nemico cambia il modo di difendersi e forse
difronte a un nemico invincibile ci si arrenderà piu' facilmente;
in fondo saddam non si è arreso forse perchè pensava chen on veniva
attaccato o se veniva attaccato che il suo esercito avrebbe imbrigliato 
i soldati nella guerriglia; in modo diverso è quello che sta succedendo ;
se pero' già gli USA avevano un esercito meccanizzato al 100% non credo che
poteva farsi illusioni;
in un futuro non so quanto lontano credo che tali robot possono anche fare
azioni tipo commando a costo vita zero;
un conto era mandare un commando rischiando di farlo massacrare nella
fortezza di saddam, un conto è madarci delle macchine

 
http://www.robot-japan.com/Dancouga%20pictures%202/Dancougar%20sword.JPG
Sbagliato, la citazione giusta è:
http://www.gundamofficial.com/
http://www.classicbattletech.com/DeskTops/CrusaderClansCoverThumb.jpg
http://www.robotech.com/gallery/galimage/viewgalimage.php?id=52
O se vuoi essere apocalittico ed aulico:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/
Mirco

 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/
Io sugli Screamers non ci scherzerei troppo; da ingegnere meccanico con 
specializazione in robotica ti posso dire che non sarebbe così 
"improponibile" realizzarli.
Certo non sarebbero economici come quelli del film, ma volendo si potrebbe 
realizzare qualcosa di molto simile, magari con una mina acarica cava invece 
delle lame....
-- 
Matteo
"Ma se mai dovessi presentarti a casa mia con una telecamera, ti ucciderò."
Clint Eastwood a Michael Moore 

 fortezza di saddam, un conto è madarci delle macchine
Evidentemente
Mirco

 delle lame....
Lo so bene.
Infatti, si era discusso in passato di campi minati che si 
autoriconfiguravano, in modo da coprire i buchi lasciati dalle mine esplose.
Il problema maggiore per realizzare dei droni come gli Screamer è che 
devi trovargli una fonte di energia sufficiente a farli muovere per 
lungo tempo senza necessità di essere riforniti.
Ma qui vengono in aiuto le ricerche sulla tecnologia "digestiva" per 
produrre elettricità.
Mirco

 dell'artiglieria e dei carri armati.
Dal Dragon Fire sembra che stiano tirando fuori L'EFSS (che non e'
esattamente un "mezzo robotico") per i Marines. Qualcuno sa' qualcosa di
piu'?
ciao. dino.
-- 
Remove "no" and "spam" to e-mail

 piu'?
Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS)
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/efss.htm
Non sembra qualche cosa di "rivoluzionario".
In pratica un mortaio/cannone (8 km di gittata) semovente con 
l'elettronica necessaria per essere interconnesso e che vuole essere 
estremamente preciso.
Mirco

 Non sembra qualche cosa di "rivoluzionario".
Beh, il Dragon Fire I o II era "rivoluzionario" nel senso che avrebbe
dovuto essere un mortaio da 120mm completamente automatizzato, con la
possibilita' di depositarlo via elicottero e poi attivarlo remotamente. Da
qui a collegarlo ad una rete di sensori, il passo sarebbe stato
relativamente breve: "artiglieria robotizzata", quindi. 
La parte piu' interessante dell'EFSS a mio parere starebbe invece nella
scelta della piattaforma sulla quale montare il mortaio (deve essere
trasportabile all'interno del V-22, quindi *piccola* per quel tipo di
arma), nulla a che vedere con la robotica... :)
