Re: Scouts and drone/robot disabling

On Thu, 8 Aug 2002 09:23:38 -0400, kaladorn@magma.ca wrote:

>Beth mentioned that it is hard to generate an EMP. 

No, that was me. *S*

>I'd agree that OO 
>knows his stuff, but I've seen an EMD (Electromagnetic disabler) 
>which is a sort of EMP mine used to take out car engines during high 
>speed chases. 

Does it work by frying the electronics, or just disrupting them enough
that
the car stalls? If you're a criminal driving along on a high speed chase
and
your engine suddenly and unexpectedly stalls, you're going to be too
confused
to restart the car while in motion. (Can it even be done in a modern
car? Most
modern cars need to have the brake on to start the engine. You'd have to
switch the car into neutral, hit the brake, and then start the car. That
will
slow you down, probably enough that if the car restarts it's too late
anyway.)

>So, I think it probably IS portable to make EMP mines for 
>killing ground vehicles or robots, and is very HARD to make airborne 
>EMP weapons (that are non-nuclear).

Good point, and an EMP pulse may be enough to shut down the robot. If it
just
causes a glitch, and the robot can handle a quick reboot, you may find
it
doesn't do much more than slow it down for a minute or so.

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