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Some pretty neat stuff going on in one of my favorite topics, development of new weapon/combat field operation systems. The Dept of Defense has an organization called the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) which, among other things, provides funding for firms and schools to demonstrate new technology.
One of the items most interesting is the development of driverless vehicles for combat operations. Since 2004, DARPA has had an "Urban Challenge" in which driverless vehicles annually compete for prize money in racing around an urban obstacle course. Each year the course gets more difficult, but the vehicles are getting much more competent:
Impacts over the long term are very significant, both in combat and private applications. The need for soldiers to be placed in harms way (and the need for contractors) would be significantly reduced. Also, some of this technology may find its way into our future privately owned vehicles.
This is absolutely fantastic! At first glance I thought this was simply a "wireless" vehicle. The fact that it is autonomous and with that level of performance is incredible. Now all you have to do is put this tech. on a 10 ton armored vehicle and you can dispatch them into the city to pick-up/deliver soldiers or deliver supplies. Because it is autonomous there is no worry of signal interference or loss... very cool.
Glad to see one of our superiorities in action... technology.
Very interesting reading....I remember two similar stories in recent years, running along the same "vein"--
(1) Unmanned Railroad Locomotives---The technology has been around for some time to run entirely unmanned freight trains over long distances, controlled robotically. There are already cases of this being done in ore-loading operations, etc., and it could easily be expanded to "over-the-road" runs. We all know the caboose disappeared some years ago--and now many freights do run with only ONE person aboard. The main objections to this seem to be RR Labor Unions, and the objections of public safety officials. Otherwise it would be relatively easy to do..
(2) Some time back, I read an interesting piece about entirely WINDOWLESS Airliner cockpits, in which the crew would have total dependence on "digital" views of what's outside and up-front...just like they NOW have, but it would be an artificial picture. Its promoters insist it would be a GOOD thing, because the view wouldn't be restricted due to darkness or bad weather--it would ALWAYS be bright and clear, 24/7.
This would also "free up" valuable cockpit space for more instrumentation, space that's now dedicated to windows.
The main objection to this seems to be "passenger fear". It's just too SCARY for most people to think of flying across the ocean in a plane in which the pilot can't look outside. But the technology, apparently, would be no problem...
Back in around 1970, when I was in college, I had written a paper concerning the advances in robot technology. At that time, I was part of a team working on making "independent" robots capable of manuvering around a room without hitting objects.
At that time, the room was under 100 square ft, and we only had four or five objects placed in the room. We divided the room into a few hundred squares (each 6"x6") and had a small cylinder (guide wire controls) we were trying to program to avoid hitting fixed objects. Our success was very limited, and looking at the progress over a 35 year period is really amazing to me.
Good point! Spend time and money on getting us off oil, and not distracting us into a RoboCar.
We need better drivers, not another techno-crutch.
Not the same issue, this allows us to ultimately transport items in a combat zone with unmanned vehicles. Think about all of the combat field casualties we could eliminate.
I used to date someone who did this in the military. Ofcourse, the cooler stuff is still classified....but our enemies should be afraid. We have such a great country.
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