U.S. Army Tests Flying Robot Sniper

[Reptile]

Not Mass compliant:


Link below; more links on link below:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517481,00.html



It could be the best Xbox 360 game ever, and a real kick in the ARSS.

The U.S. Army is testing the Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System (ARSS) — a remote-controlled unmanned Vigilante robot helicopter equipped with a high-velocity sniper rifle.

Its RND Edge semi-automatic gun is mounted on a self-stabilizing turret with built-in zoom camera, and fires 7 to 10 precisely aimed .338-caliber rounds per second.

Back on the ground, a human directs it using a modified Xbox 360 controller, which plugs into a laptop so that the operator can see what the drone sees.

"Having the ability to accurately engage single point man sized targets with an airborne UAV will give the ground based soldier the ability to have a high-point survivable sniper at their disposal when needed," stated the Army solicitation notice when the project was announced in 2005.

The Space Dynamics Laboratory at Utah State University developed the Precision Weapons Platform guided turret and rifle system.

 

[Spanz]

The word "autonomous" is the scary thing here. If some gyrine in oklahoma is sitting at a terminal and directing the robot to shoot the bad guys, then that is a very good thing. If, however, this robot is out on its own search and destroy mission, and IT is making the decision on friend or foe, then I am VERY concerned! Way too much potential for friendly fire deaths! Even 100 years from now, I do not believe the technology will be advanced enough to supplant a human making those decisions.

 

[Bob P]

Skynet!

 

[Windwalker]

Tick, tick, tick... It's only time before the FBI, BATF, and city police departments see the "urgent" need for this tool to combat "terrorist" groups in our country. Am I being paranoid???

 

[Climbnsink]

Tick, tick, tick... It's only time before the FBI, BATF, and city police departments see the "urgent" need for this tool to combat "terrorist" groups in our country. Am I being paranoid???

Think of how many dogs the cops could kill with one of those.

 

[MasterShinken]

All that GRAW 2 training will come in handy

 

[cekim]

The word "autonomous" is the scary thing here. If some gyrine in oklahoma is sitting at a terminal and directing the robot to shoot the bad guys, then that is a very good thing. If, however, this robot is out on its own search and destroy mission, and IT is making the decision on friend or foe, then I am VERY concerned! Way too much potential for friendly fire deaths! Even 100 years from now, I do not believe the technology will be advanced enough to supplant a human making those decisions.

eh, like any weapon, it can be very dangerous if the "intelligence" behind it is flawed...

"Autonomous armed robots don't kill people - the software designers and controllers kill people"

I think Asimov missed the most important rule of robotics though:

Rule #1 - there must always be an "off" switch

You can secure it from the bad guys, but an autonomous device must never be allowed to prevent itself from being turned off in the case of malfunction - or unintended function...

 

[ShadeWPI]

UAVs are a wonderful addition to the arsenal.

Armed UAVs, perticularly precision weapon armed UAVs have long been a logical next step. Both Ground and Air Based UAVs have significant advantages over flesh and blood counter parts for long range accuracy missions.

A UAV has greater mass to absorb recoil, greater control over their weapon due to fixed mounts and better precision of aim due to improved sensors and not needing to breath, have a heart-beat and no "flinching"

To be effective, combat UAVs need to be locally controllers or provided targetting information from local ground based units. Time of Flight delays for remote operation beyond line of sight are problematic. Even AWAC repeated transmissions have a minimum quarter second round trip delay, an unacceptable delay for a precision weapon like a .338 caliber rifle - Imagin if your rifle had a quarter second hang-fire? Even a person walking would need to be lead by 6-8" to account for this long of a delay.