Re: [SG] meets [RL]

That doesn't rule out just using ECM to screw up radio transmissions if
radio is being used to control it.

If these things are similar to the ones we rec'd a demonstration of in
Haiti, (why they decided to demo new toys to a bunch of MP's and
Infantry in Haiti I'll never know), then they have multiple options for
controlling it including radio(frequency-hopping digital radio, no
less), IR laser, wire.	

They have at a minimum two cameras on them, one controlled by the
"driver" another controlled by a motion sensor (over-ridable by the
driver or a co-pilot/gunner).  When the little bot is armed, the gun
points where the motion sensor points the camera, and is fired by
driver/co-pilot command.  They can amplify ambient light as well as use
an IR flashlight to light their way.  Oh, and they have sound pick-ups
like those "wolf-ear" headphones hunters like to use... they amplify
normal sounds, but cut back when they go above comfort-level, even going
so far as to dull gunshots to a comfortable level, though that filtering
of the sound might happen back at the controller station, not on the
bot.  I'm sure the bot doesn't mind a little extra noise.

At the time I saw the demo (1995-ish), they were unarmored, driven by
rubber treads and capable of keeping up with a troop doing the airborne
shuffle over fairly even terrain.  They could traverse stairs and curbs,
the robot arm could open doors, drill holes and cut wires.  And that's
all I can remember right now.

Seeing as how they weigh 42 lbs... I can easily see all landmines being
modified to only detonate when 45 lbs steps on them... 

On Wed, 2002-08-07 at 09:03, Allan Goodall wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Aug 2002 11:20:15 +1000 , Beth.Fulton@csiro.au wrote:
> 
> >Do those things have to be "hardened" (or whatever you call it) so
that
> >someone couldn't fry them with an EM pulse? (I probably just showed
my
> >ignorance completely there sorry, but hopefully you get what I mean).
> 
> I thought someone (Oerjan, perhaps?) pointed out that it's incredibly
> difficult to generate a strong enough EM pulse short of detonating a
nuke. EM
> pulses as weapons in this manner are still the thing of sci-fi.
> 
> 
> Allan Goodall 		 agoodall@hyperbear.com
> http://www.hyperbear.com
> 
> "At long last, the earthy soil of the typical, 
> unimaginable mortician was revealed!" 
>  - from the Random H.P. Lovecraft Story Generator:
> http://www.darkicon.com/Library/randsent.htm
> 
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