Birth of Terminator
Back in 1984 when the Terminator came out, who would have thought that the military would actually be sending armed Robots into combat in 20 years? According to this site, (mentioned on slashdot.org) they are doing just that in Iraq. Is this the beginning of the rise of the machines?I think my buddy Non_Prophet has one of those cute little vaccum cleaner robots this company also makes (it might be another variety, but I know this company also makes those rug sucking things…
Comment posted on 11-30-2004
Shame, shame shame its not like you to just stick things up without doing a little look-up. (http://www.irobot.com/governmentindustrial)
To equate small remote controlled cars with ‘ sending armed Robots into combat ‘ is a bit of a streatch.
Why would you put a ‘pump action shotgun’ on a robot? If we where to do this don’t you think something a little more robotic would be used?
Comment posted on 12-1-2004
You’re quite right, I didn’t do my homework on this one. The story I
pointed to was just another blog! However, the Packbots *are*
autonomous – according to this page on the site you point to they run
on a Linux based OS and can zoom around and clean up your room when
fitted with a vaccuum attachment, or help investigate tunnels in Baghdad
before sending in the marines. The claimthat they are armed with “pump-
action” shotguns was really very silly – if you’re going to arm a robot with a
weapon, you’d use something easier to operate than a shotgun, I’d
imagine.