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Discussion: What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack?

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ShelterWolf	What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack? Feb 25 2010, 2:51 PM EST The Present and Future of Unmanned Drone Aircraft: An Illustrated Field Guide http://www.popsci.com/node/43561/?cmpid=enews022510 I especially like this one since it's the familiar "UFO" triangular shape, probably has "3 dots" underneath. Class: Stealth Habitat: Edwards Air Force Base, Lancaster, California Behavior: Spawn of Boeing Phantom Works’s defunct X-45C, this prototype jet-powered flying wing has morphed into a test bed for advanced UAV technologies, including electronic warfare tools like radar jamming, autonomous aerial refueling, air-missile defense and surveillance. Engineers expect it to fly at up to 40,000 feet. With an anticipated cruising speed of up to 610 mph, the Phantom Ray will be one of the fastest UAVs on record. Notable Feature: Its unusual shape allows it to evade radar. Post reply Do you find this valuable? Keyword tags: aerial weapon reconnaissance robot plane skynet drone UAV unmanned aerial vehicle
MMM.MIND	1. RE: What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack? Feb 25 2010, 5:52 PM EST "The Present and Future of Unmanned Drone Aircraft: An Illustrated Field Guide http://www.popsci.com/node/43561/?cmpid=enews022510 I especially like this one since it's the familiar "UFO" triangular shape, probably has "3 dots" underneath. Class: Stealth Habitat: Edwards Air Force Base, Lancaster, California Behavior: Spawn of Boeing Phantom Works’s defunct X-45C, this prototype jet-powered flying wing has morphed into a test bed for advanced UAV technologies, including electronic warfare tools like radar jamming, autonomous aerial refueling, air-missile defense and surveillance. Engineers expect it to fly at up to 40,000 feet. With an anticipated cruising speed of up to 610 mph, the Phantom Ray will be one of the fastest UAVs on record. Notable Feature: Its unusual shape allows it to evade radar." Something without land control (sometimes UAV get lost only for bad signal) and with air combat capability Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	2. RE: What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack? Mar 2 2010, 5:50 PM EST \| Post edited: Mar 2 2010, 5:50 PM EST "Something without land control (sometimes UAV get lost only for bad signal) and with air combat capability" You mean like satellite control like Skynet would have? I believe that's why they are opening robo-ops on the moon and mars and why GM teams with NASA to make astrobots. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	3. RE: What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack? Jan 20 2011, 5:20 PM EST Rise Of The Machines Military contractors are making robots faster, smarter and more lethal. What else are they planning? (My personal favs below:) Boston Dynamics Big Dog Proposed robot pack animal capable of tracking humans over more than 12 miles of difficult terrain Honeywell XM 156 Miniature air vehicle that can "hover and stare" to discreetly observe human activity. Virob Able “to crawl within cavities with similar characteristics as the typical human body’s veins and arteries". Cardiorobotics Cardioarm Surgical robot snake capable of entering a human body and wrapping itself around the heart and other organs. * (MAV Swarm?) Proposed system in which dozens of “swarming micro air vehicles” may quickly improvise a robust communications network in any battle space. Stabbing Robot Designed, for “soft-tissue injury“ research purposes, to cut humans using such devices as a steak knife, scissors or a screwdriver. Slugbot Proposed anti-slug gardening device capable of surviving solely on a diet of decomposing flesh. *Punching Robot Repurposed assembly-line device capable of inflicting multiple blows of increasing intensity in order to analyze degrees of human pain. http://www.popsci.com/node/51372/?cmpid=enews012011 The stabbing, punching 'bots must be a fetish, but I am curious as to their exact purpose... Can you imagine terminators that use slugbot technology? IF slugbot termies were sent back far enough into the past, they would hang out in grave yards and be mistaken for ghouls... Post reply 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
ShelterWolf	4. http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 20 2011, 6:06 PM EST The Terminator Scenario: Are We Giving Our Military Machines Too Much Power? Last August, U.S. Navy operators on the ground lost all contact with a Fire Scout helicopter flying over Maryland. They had programmed the unmanned aerial vehicle to return to its launch point if ground communications failed, but instead the machine took off on a north-by-northwest route toward the nation’s capital. Over the next 30 minutes, military officials alerted the Federal Aviation Administration and North American Aerospace Defense Command and readied F-16 fighters to intercept the pilotless craft. Finally, with the Fire Scout just miles shy of the White House, the Navy regained control and commanded it to come home. “Renegade Unmanned Drone Wandered Skies Near Nation’s Capital,” warned one news headline in the following days. “UAV Resists Its Human Oppressors, Joyrides over Washington, D.C.,” declared another... Ronald Arkin, the director of the Mobile Robot Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology, hypothesizes that, within certain bounded contexts, armed robots could even execute military operations more ethically than humans. A machine equipped with Arkin’s prototype “ethical governor” would be unable to execute lethal actions that did not adhere to the rules of engagement, minimize collateral damage, or take place within legitimate “kill zones.” Moreover, machines don’t seek vengeance or experience the overwhelming desire to protect themselves, and they are never swayed by feelings of fear or hysteria. I spoke to Arkin in September, just a few days after news broke that the Pentagon had filed charges against five U.S. soldiers for murdering Afghan civilians and mutilating their corpses. “Robots are already stronger, faster and smarter,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they be more humane? In warfare where humans commit atrocities, this is relatively low-hanging fruit...” Low hanging fruit? wtf? Who is programming the 'bots if not humans? Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	5. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 20 2011, 6:10 PM EST Oops Moments Placing such faith in our military machines may be tempting, but it is not always wise. In 1988 a Navy cruiser patrolling the Persian Gulf shot down an Iranian passenger plane, killing all 290 aboard, when its automated radar system mistook the aircraft for a much smaller fighter jet, and the ship’s crew trusted the computer more than other conflicting data. Several scientists at Wright-Patterson mentioned learning from such classic examples of over-reliance on machines, which even in civilian aviation has led to fatal accidents. As often as not, such military machine mishaps are the result of what a vice president at a robotics company described to P.W. Singer as “oops moments,” the kinds of not-uncommon mistakes that occur with the technology at such an early stage of development. In 2007, when the first batch of the armed tank-like robots called SWORDS were deployed to Iraq—and then quickly pulled from action—a story spread about one aiming its guns on friendly forces. The robot’s manufacturer later confirmed that there were several malfunctions but insisted that no personnel were ever endangered. A C-RAM in Iraq did target a U.S. helicopter, identifying it incorrectly as incoming rocket fire; why it held its own fire remains unclear. A soldier back from duty in 2006 told Singer that a ground robot he operated in Iraq would sometimes “drive off the road, come back at you, spin around, stuff like that.” That same year, Singer says, a SWORDS inexplicably began whirling around during a demonstration for executives; a scene out of the movie Robocop was avoided because the robot’s machine gun wasn’t loaded. But at a crowded South African army training exercise in 2007, an automated anti-aircraft cannon seemed to jam and then began to swivel wildly, firing all of its 500 auto-loading rounds. Nine soldiers were killed and 14 seriously wounded... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	6. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 20 2011, 6:13 PM EST The precursors to such systems—the remote-control machines that perform many operations the military calls too “dull, dirty, and dangerous” for humans—are in wide use, and not without consequence. CIA drone crews unable to adequately discriminate between combatants and noncombatants have so far killed as many as 1,000 Pakistani civilians. And truly autonomous systems are taking on increasingly sensitive tasks. “I don’t know that we can ignore the Terminator risk,” Lin says, and as an example suggests not some killer drone but rather the computers that even now control many of our business operations. Last spring, for instance, one trading firm’s “sell algorithm” managed to trigger a sudden 1,000-point “flash crash” in the stock market: “It’s not that big of a stretch to think that much of our lives, from business systems to military systems, are going to be run by computers that will process information faster than we can and are going to do things like crash the stock market or potentially launch wars. The Terminator scenario is not entirely ridiculous in the long term...” (Why do I have a sick feeling in my stomach right now?) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	7. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 20 2011, 6:18 PM EST The Air Force is also looking into how humans can become more machinelike, through the use of drugs and various devices, in order to more smoothly interact with machines. The job of a UAV manager often entails eight hours of utter tedium broken up at some unknown time by a couple of minutes of pandemonium. In flight tests, UAV operators tend to “tunnelize,” fixating on one UAV to the exclusion of others, and a NATO study showed that performance levels dropped by half when a person went from monitoring one UAV to just two. Military research into pharmaceuticals that act as calmatives or enhance alertness and acuity are well-known. But in the research lab’s Human Effectiveness Directorate, I saw a prototype of a kind of crown rigged with electrode fingers that rested on the scalp and picked up electric signals generated by the brain. Plans are for operators overseeing several UAVs to wear a future version of one of these contraptions and to undergo continuous heart-rate and eye-movement monitoring. In all, these devices would determine when a person is fatigued, angry, excited or overwhelmed. If a UAV operator’s attention waned, he could be cued visually, or a magnetic stimulant could be sent to his frontal lobe. And when a person displayed the telltale signs of panic or stress, a human (or machine) supervisor could simply shift responsibilities away from that person... (Anyone seen "Brazil" by Terry Gilliam? Seems to me the machines would monitor their humans more.) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
MetalHunter	8. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 20 2011, 6:32 PM EST You missed something ... Thanks God, "she" still "live" in Japan, not in North America! :P Post reply 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?
R.Daneel_Olivaw	9. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 21 2011, 1:03 AM EST "You missed something ... Thanks God, "she" still "live" in Japan, not in North America! :P" Yeah, thank god. The Japanese have the monopoly on dancing, singing robot ho-bags. Here is the USA our robots are a little different. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
MetalHunter	10. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 22 2011, 11:14 AM EST \| Post edited: Jan 22 2011, 11:15 AM EST "Yeah, thank god. The Japanese have the monopoly on dancing, singing robot ho-bags. Here is the USA our robots are a little different. " Even Miss Miimu is stunned, by comparing "her" with those of Disney animatronics. Let me say you, The Secret of Polichinelle. You see what is written on her chest? AIST. This is the Japanese equivalent of an honorable institution, DARPA. Exactly, Miss Miimu is an early military prototype. Although "she" sings and dances well enough, I'd be surprised if the Japanese Army would think touched on lonely Otaku who want a robotic girlfriend. Especially because Miss Miimu is capable of voice and facial recognition, to climb up and down stairs, running almost 25 mph, and manipulate almost any object created for people. Do the math. ;) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
R.Daneel_Olivaw	11. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 22 2011, 12:18 PM EST "Even Miss Miimu is stunned, by comparing "her" with those of Disney animatronics. Let me say you, The Secret of Polichinelle. You see what is written on her chest? AIST. This is the Japanese equivalent of an honorable institution, DARPA. Exactly, Miss Miimu is an early military prototype. Although "she" sings and dances well enough, I'd be surprised if the Japanese Army would think touched on lonely Otaku who want a robotic girlfriend. Especially because Miss Miimu is capable of voice and facial recognition, to climb up and down stairs, running almost 25 mph, and manipulate almost any object created for people. Do the math. ;)" While I admit that 'she' is pretty advanced compare to the animatronics, you could still push that thing over without much trouble. For real combat capability, forget making it pretty, make it stable! Lets see her in a footrace with BigDog! Post reply Do you find this valuable?
MetalHunter	12. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 26 2011, 12:31 PM EST "While I admit that 'she' is pretty advanced compare to the animatronics, you could still push that thing over without much trouble. For real combat capability, forget making it pretty, make it stable! Lets see her in a footrace with BigDog! " How cute is this little AT-AT! However, HRP-4C can perform tasks that are impossible for this nice AT-AT. For example, we do not know 'her' performance in the noble sport of shooting of running targets ... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	13. RE: http://www.popsci.com/node/50766/?cmpid=enews012011 Jan 30 2011, 9:38 PM EST "How cute is this little AT-AT! However, HRP-4C can perform tasks that are impossible for this nice AT-AT. For example, we do not know 'her' performance in the noble sport of shooting of running targets ..." Put fairy wings on her back and a flame thrower in her hands, so she can help Skynet. Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	14. Robot hummingbird passes flight tests (w/ Video) Feb 23 2011, 8:47 PM EST A prototype robot spy "ornithopter," the Nano-Hummingbird, has successfully completed flight trials in California. Developed by the company AeroVironment Inc., the miniature spybot looks like a hummingbird complete with flapping wings, and is only slightly larger and heavier than most hummingbirds, but smaller than the largest species.... Oh, what a cute hummingbird... (POW!) http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-02-robot-hummingbird-flight-video.html Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	15. Chameleon's ballistic tongue inspires robotic manipulators Apr 6 2011, 10:16 PM EDT Like the chameleon tongue, Debray’s robotic manipulators use different specialized systems for projection, catching, and retraction. To project, all four manipulators use a coilgun in place of the chameleon tongue’s accelerator muscle. Elastomers and/or cotton string is used in place of the chameleon’s hyolingual apparatus. Instead of folding up like an accordion, the elastomers and string are wound around a reel. As for catching, the robotic manipulators use magnets on the tip of the elastomers, which attract magnetic “prey.” For retraction, the manipulators use either an elastomer, a DC motor connected to a reel and string, or a combination of both. One of the manipulators also had wings on the mobile part, which could allow researchers to take advantage of aerodynamic effects. “In the future, movable wings will allow controlling the trajectory after the ejection of the tongue, which is not possible now,” Debray said. “In our experiments, the wings are not movable. However, their aerodynamic effect on the trajectory of the tongue has been demonstrated experimentally. So far, aerodynamic effects have been poorly studied in the field of manipulators...” http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-chameleon-ballistic-tongue-robotic.html Wow, imagine that snatching you up into the sky at lightning speed - but using a claw! Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	16. RE: What more does Skynet need to launch a full scale aerial attack? May 4 2011, 4:29 AM EDT \| Post edited: May 4 2011, 4:29 AM EDT ...The quantitative results matched surprisingly well the predictions of Hamilton's rule even in the presence of multiple interactions. Hamilton's original theory takes a limited and isolated vision of gene interaction into account, whereas the genetic simulations run in the foraging robots integrate effects of one gene on multiple other genes with Hamilton's rule still holding true. The findings are already proving useful in swarm robotics. "We have been able to take this experiment and extract an algorithm that we can use to evolve cooperation in any type of robot," explains Floreano. "We are using this altruism algo-rithm to improve the control system of our flying robots and we see that it allows them to effectively collaborate and fly in swarm formation more successfully." http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-robots-validating-hamilton-video.html The Swarm is coming to get you.... Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	17. War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs, part 1() Jun 20 2011, 5:19 PM EDT WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio — Two miles from the cow pasture where the Wright Brothers learned to fly the first airplanes, military researchers are at work on another revolution in the air: shrinking unmanned drones, the kind that fire missiles into Pakistan and spy on insurgents in Afghanistan, to the size of insects and birds. The base’s indoor flight lab is called the “microaviary,” and for good reason. The drones in development here are designed to replicate the flight mechanics of moths, hawks and other inhabitants of the natural world. “We’re looking at how you hide in plain sight,” said Greg Parker, an aerospace engineer, as he held up a prototype of a mechanical hawk that in the future might carry out espionage or kill. Half a world away in Afghanistan, Marines marvel at one of the new blimplike spy balloons that float from a tether 15,000 feet above one of the bloodiest outposts of the war, Sangin in Helmand Province. The balloon, called an aerostat, can transmit live video — from as far as 20 miles away — of insurgents planting homemade bombs. “It’s been a game-changer for me,” Capt. Nickoli Johnson said in Sangin this spring. “I want a bunch more put in.” From blimps to bugs, an explosion in aerial drones is transforming the way America fights and thinks about its wars. Predator drones, the Cessna-sized workhorses that have dominated unmanned flight since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, are by now a brand name, known and feared around the world. But far less widely known are the sheer size, variety and audaciousness of a rapidly expanding drone universe, along with the dilemmas that come with it... (continues) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	18. RE: War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs, part 2 Jun 20 2011, 5:20 PM EDT The Pentagon now has some 7,000 aerial drones, compared with fewer than 50 a decade ago. Within the next decade the Air Force anticipates a decrease in manned aircraft but expects its number of “multirole” aerial drones like the Reaper — the ones that spy as well as strike — to nearly quadruple, to 536. Already the Air Force is training more remote pilots, 350 this year alone, than fighter and bomber pilots combined. “It’s a growth market,” said Ashton B. Carter, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer. The Pentagon has asked Congress for nearly $5 billion for drones next year, and by 2030 envisions ever more stuff of science fiction: “spy flies” equipped with sensors and microcameras to detect enemies, nuclear weapons or victims in rubble. Peter W. Singer, a scholar at the Brookings Institution and the author of “Wired for War,” a book about military robotics, calls them “bugs with bugs.” In recent months drones have been more crucial than ever in fighting wars and terrorism. The Central Intelligence Agency spied on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan by video transmitted from a new bat-winged stealth drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, otherwise known as the “Beast of Kandahar,” named after it was first spotted on a runway in Afghanistan. One of Pakistan’s most wanted militants, Ilyas Kashmiri, was reported dead this month in a C.I.A. drone strike, part of an aggressive drone campaign that administration officials say has helped paralyze Al Qaeda in the region — and has become a possible rationale for an accelerated withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. More than 1,900 insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal areas have been killed by American drones since 2006, according to the Web site www.longwarjournal.com... (continues) Post reply Do you find this valuable?
ShelterWolf	19. RE: War Evolves With Drones, Some Tiny as Bugs, part 3 Jun 20 2011, 5:22 PM EDT In April the United States began using armed Predator drones against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces in Libya. Last month a C.I.A.-armed Predator aimed a missile at Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical American-born cleric believed to be hiding in Yemen. The Predator missed, but American drones continue to patrol Yemen’s skies. Large or small, drones raise questions about the growing disconnect between the American public and its wars. Military ethicists concede that drones can turn war into a video game, inflict civilian casualties and, with no Americans directly at risk, more easily draw the United States into conflicts. Drones have also created a crisis of information for analysts on the end of a daily video deluge. Not least, the Federal Aviation Administration has qualms about expanding their test flights at home, as the Pentagon would like. Last summer, fighter jets were almost scrambled after a rogue Fire Scout drone, the size of a small helicopter, wandered into Washington’s restricted airspace... (continues, purely political agenda paragraph skipped) Post reply Do you find this valuable?

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