Pentagon eyes 'human like' handyman robots: But why?

April 06, 2012 13:37

A US military agency is to announce Grand Challenge for a new generation of humanoid robots to add it to the country’s military arsenal.

View full story

Comments (26) Sort by: highest rating oldest first newest first

Anonymous user 28.02.2013 12:06

Haha, no one uses 30-06 anymore except redneck hunters.I don't think they will be hunting these.

0

Undo

Jesus H (unregistered) 04.12.2012 01:58

 Great targets for a 30.06

0

Undo

ManiacMagic(MM) 26.04.2012 14:41

Horacio wrote in #3
"The US founded billions of dollars to the best engineers of the world to create a ball-pen that works in 0 gravity. The Russians use pencils."

A human is capable of so many things that a robot has to be designed for and will allways lack in comparison to human. The only thing a ciborg is good for is OBIDIENCE. Now, Is it a good thing?
WRONG
This story perfectly illustrates the perils of government waste; pity it's not quite true. NASA didn't have $12 billion to spend on anything when it first started sending astronauts into space in the early 1960s. The agency's entire budget for the 1960 was $500 million; by 1965, it was up to $5.2 billion, still not enough to throw away $12 billion reinventing the ballpoint pen.Be that as it may, beginning with the Apollo program astronauts did begin using a specially-designed zero-gravity pen called the Fisher Space Pen. The nitrogen-pressurized space pen worked in "freezing cold, desert heat, underwater and upside down," as well as in the weightless conditions of outer space. 

It was developed not by NASA, however, but by one enterprising individualowner of the Fisher Space Pen Company. By his own account, Fisher spent "thousands of hours and millions of dollars" of his own money in research and development — not billions.The Fisher Space Pen is still used by both American and Russian astronauts on every space flight, and you can even buy one yourself direct from the company for a measly 50 bucks.

+1

Undo

Horacio 24.04.2012 19:01

"The US founded billions of dollars to the best engineers of the world to create a ball-pen that works in 0 gravity. The Russians use pencils."

A human is capable of so many things that a robot has to be designed for and will allways lack in comparison to human. The only thing a ciborg is good for is OBIDIENCE. Now, Is it a good thing?

0

Undo

Lyle 09.04.2012 20:47

> That could turn out useful for disasters like meltdown aftermath of Japan's Fukushima nuclear facility. 
T hey tried to use remote-controlled robots to clean up the debris following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. They went haywire - their circuits couldn't function with the high degree of radiation. So they had to deploy instead what they called "bio-robots", i.e., humans. Though they were deployed for only a minute at a time from a helicopter, they experienced insane doses of radiation. Those brave souls ended up aging rapidly and developing cancers.
So robots aren't always the answer for hazardous situations. Perhaps if they had enough lead shielding?

+2

Undo

Nick Bellorusso 08.04.2012 18:57

@ Skynet   ;

Yeah, Terminator is here!

But this is not science fiction- this is science reality!

+1

Undo

tareber 07.04.2012 21:18

"but why" it said.  Obviously because robots won't burn korans,  urinate on dead bodies, or build pyramids out of naked prisoners right after a forced whack off session at abu ghraib.  Unfortunatly I don't think a robot army will beable to compete with a human army for 100 years.

If this is in response to Russia 'zombie' weapons,  I think washington has gone mad, especially after its inability to design a aircraft that works correctly.  The US will reduce it self to broken fighter jets and less effective robot soldiers.

Or maybe its because robots can kill who and what ever they are programmed to kill with out a need to prosocute personal.  Robot kills all in sight, that is just defective unit and will have the "upgrade" software installed to correct it.

I am still unable to determine if this is better or worse.  But I do think public opinion will scrutinize wars a little more know that its a heartless program going to war and not something backed by human judgement and good conscience.(Even though its not)

+2

Undo

GG 07.04.2012 14:43

I'm thinking of the movie 'I, Robot' right now. Scary. On the other hand, if a robot sex toy were to be designed, I'm willing to bet it will make it's debut in Japan first.

+2

Undo

Skynet 07.04.2012 14:20

Wow! They are really creating terminators.

+1

Undo

Es 07.04.2012 14:18

Guess they want to kill more with more efficienty and do it more cheaply.

+1

Undo

nzsd 07.04.2012 14:01

Oh, great. Now we don't have to have enormous corporations like Apple pay chinamen $0.13/a day (or whatever it is they pay them) to work 14 hours/day. Some good news apparently.

0

Undo

rf 07.04.2012 11:41

The US is not able to kill enough people yet.  Maybe with some killer robots it can achieve this important goal.
20,000 nuclear weapons, 15 aircraft carriers, ... is just not enough when you want to kill a lot of people.
When you kill a lot of people, you know you are a 'real man'.
Hoo Rah

+1

Undo

oneirotrader 06.04.2012 22:48

Oh My Gosh !!! The Pentagon and DARPA are so cool !!!!
I sincerely envy them, simply WOW !!!

Some people have all the fun, all the power and all the technology. Paradise on earth. I envy those generals and those scientists.


0

Undo

Keith M 06.04.2012 20:11

Why can't be apply this to science. We could send droids to Mars to plot a course for humans and set up the critical infrastructure needed for an extended stay on the red planet.

+15

Undo

Eurasian (unregistered) 06.04.2012 18:25

The whackos always attack the defenseless; children, civilians and immigrants as easy targets. Just look at their actions all around the world.
Tell you this story folks: when they attacked Serbia with relentless bombings 78 consecutive days, at the start to Serbian air force took down their jet-fighter and then released the two pilots. The screwed up in the heads Americans showed them on CNN; two looking very athletic strong guys crying before the cameras like kids “the Serbs kill people.” How exactly whackos cowards dastards you saw they did this flying on high altitude in the dark shooting your bombs as a computer game which kill hundreds? Then we laughed; if those are the “brave warriors” we have to face and fight we don´t got much to worry about.

+14

Undo

Constance 06.04.2012 17:36

To Dmidify:  Al l those other countries you mentioned do not have Empires with 800 bases scattered in 135 countries over the hemispheres.  And when they go to war, they do not go to lose, as China and Russia did to the U.S. in Korea and Viet Nam, and the mighty USSR did to the Nazis.  Also, the last check did not show they were several trillion dollars in debt from military quagmires.

+15

Undo

Add comment

By posting your comment, you agree to abide by our Posting rules

Log in to comment in full, or comment anonymously under character-limit restriction.

100 Text

– required fields

Register or

Name

Password

Show password

Register

or Register

Request a new password

Send

or Register

To complete a registration check
your Email:

or Register

A password has been sent to your email address

Edit profile

Name

New password

Retype new password

Current password

Save

Cancel

Follow us