A battlefield bot that won't die

[Mister Frag 0]

From http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54611,00.html

A Battlefield Bot That Won't Die

By Elliot Borin

20 a.m. Aug. 21, 2002 PDT

It's called, appropriately enough, the Spinner, a six-wheeled turtle of an unmanned ground combat vehicle that can -- unlike any other of its species -- be turned on its back and still keep on truckin' over virtually any terrain navigable by tanks 10 times heavier and considerably slower and less mobile.

"We expect it to become the resupply and reconnaissance workhorse of the UGCV fleet," says John Bares, director of Carnegie Mellon University's National Robotics Engineering Consortium (NREC), which is coordinating the building and testing of the Spinner under a $5.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

"At the bottom of its range it can work like a mule at benign things like resupply and unarmed reconnaissance. Working up the range (of its capabilities), it can offer direct assistance to soldiers in the battlefield and perform armed recon missions."

The Spinner is a melting pot of fresh and evolutionary technology.

Most prominent is a unique traction-and-suspension system designed by Timoney Technology, an Irish company specializing in mobility platforms. Powered by high-torque, water-cooled electric motors at each independently suspended wheel, the six 1.2-meter-diameter run-flat tires can motor the 15-passenger-van-size UGCV over obstructions previously surmountable only by tanks and other massive tractor-treaded vehicles.

Should the vehicle be upended by an obstacle or concussion, an electronic rollover sensor will trigger a computerized hydraulic system to reposition the wheels, raise the upside-down vehicle to its normal ride height and continue its mission. At the same time the wheels are being relocated, the unit's interior bay will rotate to correctly orient the cargo -- a crucial factor if the payload happens to consist of smaller vehicles or other wheeled devices that need to be rolled out to be unloaded.

Think of an upside-down turtle able to invert its legs to resume walking with its shell still upturned and to rotate its head 180 degrees so it can see the terrain it's plodding over. To carry the turtle analogy a bit further, the composite-hulled Spinner will be encased in a multipart Boeing-built carapace consisting of folding buffers designed to protect it from impacts at speeds up to 20 kph (12.5 mph).

The Spinner will also be one of the first UGCVs to use an ultra-sophisticated hybrid propulsion system based on a diesel-fuel turbine engine feeding electricity to a massive high-performance lithium-ion power pack.

According to Bares, two major objectives were presented to engineers at PEI Electronics, designers of the Spinner's battery pack and power-management system: versatility and fuel efficiency.

The Spinner will be able to self-select from three operating modes -- silent (battery only), turbine-only or mixed. Fuel efficiency will be enhanced through the use of such mechanisms as channeling braking energy into electricity to charge the batteries.

Fuel economy is crucial in a variety of military applications, Bares notes. It takes an estimated seven gallons of fuel to deliver one gallon to the front lines. Think of the Gulf War and all the tankers stretched across the desert. The Spinner's fuel economy has tremendous downstream implications.

If research on the cognitive colonization of robots now underway at the Carnegie Mellon Field Robotics Center is successful, multiple Spinners may someday be used as an unmanned task force in which each unit is programmed to specialize in a particular job -- such as scouting a route, loading material or acting as an armed escort for unarmed payload-carrying Spinners.

Currently working with a full-scale rolling test bed, engineers at NREC expect to have a functional prototype of the Spinner ready for 12 months of field trials by year's end.

Though design of the computer brain that will control the Spinner's brawn is still in the concept stage, engineers envision that the operationally autonomous vehicle will be mission-programmed by land- or aircraft-based tele-operators.

[WKK Gimbal 0]

Bah, we need Robocop.

[Warin 0]

This thing must be freaking huge!

I have to say that it seems to be a part of the trend in the US Military to make things as complicated and high tech as possible. And while it kicks ass in the 'gee whiz' factor, whats it going to do in some insanely harsh environment?

Sounds really cool though! The payload area can re-orient itself in the case of a roll over!

Maybe they should divert some of the money from this beast into making food that tastes good?

[ralphwiggum 6]

hhmmm...i see a long term conspiracy here.

first, US emphasizes on technology as early as 80s.

incorporates technology into battlefields like no other nation.

second, releases a FREE game called America's Army.

third, they are working on some robot that can do a soldier's job.

see the point? they are now focusing on using robots to do soldier's work. in order to have effective robot battalion, they need good controllers, and through America's Army, they are capable of luring those geeks that are capable of operating very fast.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (RalphWiggum @ Aug. 22 2002,02:45)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">hhmmm...i see a long term conspiracy here.

first, US emphasizes on technology as early as 80s.

incorporates technology into battlefields like no other nation.

second, releases a FREE game called America's Army.

third, they are working on some robot that can do a soldier's job.

see the point? they are now focusing on using robots to do soldier's work. in order to have effective robot battalion, they need good controllers, and through America's Army, they are capable of luring those geeks that are capable of operating very fast.<span id='postcolor'>

/Takes another hit off Ralph's Krusty The Klown bong

...Yeah, it all makes sense now... who's hungry? Im hungry...

[Col. Kurtz 0]

When Americas Army 2 comes out, youll think your playing a game, but you are really controlling a robotic soldier! Everytime you fire, some robot in a 3rd world country will fire! When you shoot a NPC, it will actualy be a real living person!

And you might want to give up team killing, those robots cost enough! You wake up the enxt morning with a bill from the army charging you for $70,000,000!

And dont be sick and shoot kids

[STS_SolidSnake 0]

Oh my dream is coming closer every day!

Metal Gear....

this sounds cool

[USSoldier11B 0]

Did you guys read the related article about body armor?

"Since then, keeping soldiers light, dry and comfortable has been more vital than loading them up with bulky armor that usually doesn't work."

BWHAHAHAHA! I wish.

"There's even a chance that exoskeletons -- with their ability to increase carrying loads -- could help integrate women into combat situations."

Repent men! The apocolypse approaches.

[ralphwiggum 6]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ Aug. 22 2002,08:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"There's even a chance that exoskeletons -- with their ability to increase carrying loads -- could help integrate women into combat situations."

Repent men! The apocolypse approaches.<span id='postcolor'>

geeze, and who is getting hurled around by Standard Issue Testosteron(sp?) Extractor now?

[USSoldier11B 0]

Hey I can be all pussywhipped if I want to. I just don't want my g/f in the foxhole next to me. I would be 100% combat ineffective if she was killed or captured.

[Col. Kurtz 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ Aug. 22 2002,08:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"There's even a chance that exoskeletons--"<span id='postcolor'>

You should like that Solid Snake, Grey Fox(best chracter of the series) shall rise again!

Heres an idea, a metal gear solid mod for OFP! That would be knida cool, you get to waste T-72s and stuff with missiles and the laser in your Metal Gear Rex! If it all gets a little tough, use your rail gun to luanch nuclear warheads on your enemy!

[STS_SolidSnake 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Col. Kurtz @ Aug. 22 2002,13:48)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (USSoldier11B @ Aug. 22 2002,08:18)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"There's even a chance that exoskeletons--"<span id='postcolor'>

You should like that Solid Snake, Grey Fox(best chracter of the series) shall rise again!

Heres an idea, a metal gear solid mod for OFP! That would be knida cool, you get to waste T-72s and stuff with missiles and the laser in your Metal Gear Rex! If it all gets a little tough, use your rail gun to luanch nuclear warheads on your enemy!<span id='postcolor'>

I prefer Ray, it looks better, exokeletons that rulezzz

After this bot, there will be some kind of terminator etc..

but what if a bug comes or the enemy sends a virus, the ai will go mad....

[moerty 0]

this thing must be HUGE!!! at first when i read that it should be capable of recon i imagined it to be a bit smaller than a jeep. then when i read it's suppossed to carry multiple vehicle i decided this was just another concept with confluence of different new technologies to beta test them. oh how i hate when they tease us with stuff like this, it's not going to happen.

as for the "exoskeleton", it's just an idea, a brainstorm, as long as a soldier has to interface with it it takes time and concentration away from the battlefield. what's most like going to happen with it is that it's going to come out in pieces, first with a headset providing augmented reality (simplest thing to do in term of mechanichs) then maybe arm or leg modules. i doubt we'll be seeing full-on exoskeletons for a long long time, unless we come up with some extraodinary digitally controlled bio musculature to power them up, hydraulics just won't cut it.

*edit* i'll have to say this much more feasable and scary.

http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,46570,00.html

kinda reminds me of that nintendo game, forgot the name, 2 dudes with machineguns, laser guns destroying everything in sight like deranged Mario Bros.

[Mister Frag 0]

moerty, if they really do want it to go where tanks could go, it can't be too small, or it would get stuck in craters and ditches. I wish the article had had a picture or even just an artist's concept drawing.