Originally posted by Xtrozero
I fly UAVs for a living and this would not be an easy thing to do unless it had some kind of smart bullet. I just can’t picture shooting a bullet and hitting anything from a UAV. Rockets and other munitions that can track a laser designator would work but trying to line up a rifle style system would be incredible hard.

They may have used something similar in design and concept to
what film ppl use called a steady CAM rig, with adaptations of course.

As a guided missile RADAR tech I was trained on the Gyros that countered
the pitch and roll of the ocean, and likely some combination of these
were implemented.

Large Luxury liners and missiles have stabilization gyros as well.

[edit on 20-5-2009 by Ex_MislTech]

Originally posted by Ridhya

You are right mice do have downsides, but the xbox controller does not work for left handed people either

Huh?

I know lots of left handed people who play X-Box just fine...

I need to find where i can sign up to control one of these. As an enthusiastic xbox 360 player i would completely own with one of these.

they use Xbox 360 controllers because they're cheap, well made, and (the wired ones they use) use standard USB protocols. Sure, it's funny because it's a kid's toy, but from a practical standpoint, it saves a lot of time and potential bungling on the part of defense contractors, which means a lot of money.

Microsoft already likely spent millions getting the things designed just right for commercial release, so why try to duplicate that?

Originally posted by mdiinican
they use Xbox 360 controllers because they're cheap, well made, and (the wired ones they use) use standard USB protocols. Sure, it's funny because it's a kid's toy, but from a practical standpoint, it saves a lot of time and potential bungling on the part of defense contractors, which means a lot of money.

Microsoft already likely spent millions getting the things designed just right for commercial release, so why try to duplicate that?

kind of funny...

You talk like cost is an issue....I do not use xbox..I use a standard Windows based computer. I use 2 key boards, 2 mouses, a joy stick and a track ball.

Cost actually is an issue when you're up against an enemy that is using asymmetrical warfare. A war simply becomes unsustainable when every time a piece of equipment gets hit, you're out a million dollars.

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Originally posted by mdiinican
they use Xbox 360 controllers because they're cheap, well made, and (the wired ones they use) use standard USB protocols. Sure, it's funny because it's a kid's toy, but from a practical standpoint, it saves a lot of time and potential bungling on the part of defense contractors, which means a lot of money.

Microsoft already likely spent millions getting the things designed just right for commercial release, so why try to duplicate that?

kind of funny...

You talk like cost is an issue....I do not use xbox..I use a standard Windows based computer. I use 2 key boards, 2 mouses, a joy stick and a track ball.

What the heck does that have to do with anything?

You didn't design and build the mice, keyboards, joystick, and track ball, did you?

Mass consumer products have their development costs spread out over more units sold than smaller production run military gear. Defense contractors aren't exactly stingy about doing R@D either, so the costs rack up.

in 1975 I designes and buildt my first robot useing two 10 speed tires , a bent peice of 1/4-20 threaded rod , two bipolar stepper motors , a motor cycle battery and more DtDp relays than I can remember.

frankly speaking , I would say I understand the subject .
the problem is not the machines...
its the operators .

the joke is...
you have Ph'd and billions of dollors in design , master craftsman with masters degrees and millions of dollors building them , collage kids with collage degrees and 100,ooo.oo of training flying them .... and high school drop outs maintaining them .

the next war could easily use warriors trained from the age of 5 or 6 years of age , with thousands of hours of training that use x-box controller for weapons .

the hoot is , they brake of the battle cuz they have to go to school and lives at home with mom and dad , but have their own room in the basement .



the real problem is simplicity and numbers . the people who are building robots today are all about complex , and don't know tactic any more than mechanics .
it is a testiment to the men and women of our military that their weps work at all . the first UAV was Isreali... a remotly controlled airplane... our military has resisted robotics from its first introduction... and still does...

they resisted aircraft carriers also , and aircraft ...

computers are not the problem here... or programming .

military thinking ls... you want to have the right to kill your own .
and if the soldier never leaves the united states... drives a robot by satilight on the other side of the world , and the robot is dropped out of the back side of a high flying cargo plane... there is something wrong with that .

you take land with infantry , lose the war with out control of the air .

well get over it . you can't kill an army that doesn't show up.
remove the head enough times... and no body will want the job .

who cares about the soldiers.. I want to kill the guy that gives the orders... let the soldiers go home and work their farms , sell shoes and work on cars... I want the jerk that gave them a uniform.... and robots are a walk up and shoot just one guy kinda wep that can make that happen ...

tell me where the jerk is... drop a "rifle on a robot" in and lets get it on .
but don't start telling me you want to limit the war and keep our boys out of cambodia , no fly zones , honorable conduct of the war .
the simple fact is , unlimited bad guys , get unlimited weps used against them .

heck , sell the rights to a toy company or a MMORP company , and sell time on line in a real live shooting war ...

or...
do unto others as they do unto you .

you make my life hard.... I will make your life short !

Are you talking about the UAV called "Shadow" that uses the controller?