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1. •  
     CommentAuthorgroundxero
   • CommentTimeSep 27th 2009

    (6884.1)
   Precision Hopper
   
   DARPA funded military robot 'hops' over walls
   
   By Paul Rincon
   Science and environment reporter, BBC News
   
   
   Video footage has been released of a robot that can leap over obstacles more than 7.5m (25ft) high.
   
   Most of the time, the shoebox-sized robot - which is being developed for the US military - uses its four wheels to get around.
   
   But the Precision Urban Hopper can use a piston-actuated "leg" to launch it over obstacles such as walls or fences.
   
   
   LINK TO ARTICLE
   
   and
   
   Boeing tries to control "swarm" of unmanned vehicles
   
   September 18, 2009
   
   
   The patent filing notes that there's "significant interest in the use of remote, unmanned vehicles for various surveillance and exploration activities," including battlefield uses. It notes that current technology allows for the control of a single unmanned vehicle by way of a joystick.
   
   But Boeing's approach would basically connect a human controller's body movements to the movements of more than one unmanned vehicle. Swarm technology has been a hotbed of R&D for the last few years.
   
   
   LINK TO ARTICLE
2. • CommentAuthorStefanJ
   • CommentTimeSep 27th 2009

    (6884.2)
   How long until these suckers are duplicated by shady arms suppliers and used to deliver bombs against us?
3. •  
     CommentAuthorPaladine
   • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009

    (6884.3)
   Bombs? No, all they need is a knife. We will have the assassinbot, who can jump the highest walls to get to you, and the slashswarmbot for crowd control.
4. •  
     CommentAuthorInternaut
   • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009 edited

    (6884.4)
   I've been following a couple of the new prospective UMV ideas that have come up recently, and I for one fear our new deathball overlords:
   
   
   
   
   All i can imagine is machine guns instead of cameras on the sides of this thing.
   
   Extra Info
5. •  
     CommentAuthorgroundxero
   • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009

    (6884.5)
   @Internaut
   
   All i can imagine is machine guns instead of cameras on the sides of this thing.
   
   Then give it the ability to fly and you have this:
   
   Multiple Kill Vehicle
   
   LOCKHEED MARTIN TEAM CONDUCTS FREE-FLIGHT HOVER TEST OF MDA'S MULTIPLE KILL VEHICLE-L
   
   Wall Street Journal (Market Watch), Dec 4, 2008.
   
   Lockheed Martin Corporation announced today that its team successfully conducted a free-flight hover test of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Multiple Kill Vehicle-L. Conducted Dec. 2 at the National Hover Test Facility at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the test met all objectivesThe full-scale prototype flew at an altitude of approximately 23 feet (7 meters) for 20 seconds, maneuvering while simultaneously tracking a target. "This test demonstrated the integrated operation of the MKV-L in near-earth flight," said Rick Reginato, Multiple Kill Vehicle program director, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company. "This represents a major step forward for the earliest operational payload designed to destroy multiple threat objects with a single missile defense interceptor."
6. •  
     CommentAuthorPaladine
   • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009 edited

    (6884.6)
   Somehow, Multiple Kill Vehicle strikes me as a portentuous name.
7. •  
     CommentAuthorInternaut
   • CommentTimeSep 28th 2009

    (6884.7)
   "This test demonstrated the integrated operation of the MKV-L in near-earth flight,"
   
   Sooo.....Has there been far earth flight?