Army readies robot soldier for Iraq

Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp.

It’s easy to humanize the SWORDS (a tendency robotics researchers say is only human) as it moves out of the flashy lobby of an office building and into the cold with nary a shiver.

Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots favorably to human soldiers: They don’t need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the robot’s cameras.

“The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it’s up to half a mile a way,” said Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that makes the SWORDS. As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon seeing the robot: “This is my invisibility cloak.”
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Here's another look into the SWORDS.
www.defensereview.com...

I can't say I'd like to come across one of these rolling up on me. I'd think that the hope would be that the more of these we have fighting over there, the less we would need our troops out there, but, I don't think we'll be seeing any decline of troops over there anytime soon.


[edit on 24-1-2005 by mpeake]

[edit on 24-1-2005 by mpeake]

I dont know what offends me more: The repetative post on this subject or the obnoxious size of the image!!

I should note i do like the detail though



Loxors

[edit on 24-1-2005 by skippytjc]

Originally posted by skippytjc
I dont know what offends me more: The repetative post on this subject or the obnoxious size of the image!!

I should note i do like the detail though

Loxors

[edit on 24-1-2005 by skippytjc]

Beleive it or not, I actually did search for any other topis on the SWORDS and couldn't find any. Sorry for the dupliate thread, and the larg (larger than I thought would be) pic has been removed. You can find the pic in the link provided.

Mods, please trash if this is a duplicate topic.

Actually, there was just one earlier, and it didnt have SWORDS andwhere in it. It was consolidated to a post on the Weapons forum. Your pic was the best of it makes any diff. Although HUGE!!!

Already a thread on this topic,

Feel free to add your view to the link provided,


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