American robots in Iraq
American Robots Tested in Iraq
March 25, 2005
Americans have tested many things in Iraq, including this all-purpose robot, light enough to be carried by a man. It is produced by the company Foster Miller. Here, a close-up of the gripping claw of its mini-robot "Talon."
Source:
http://www.foster-miller.com/lemming.htm
Below is the description of the machine, whose motorized platform can receive multiple equipment.
On the left, the watertight case with its joystick control and remote control system.
Here are the specifications of the vehicle:
Height: 30 cm (this is the base platform with its arm folded. When extended upwards, it reaches 1.5 m)
Width: 57 cm
Length: 86 cm
Ground clearance: 7 cm
Weight: between 34 and 54 kg (carried on a man's back).
Speed: about 8 km/h (human walking speed)
Joystick control
Can climb stairs with a 45° slope or move on a terrain with a 56° slope
Payload: 45 kg.
Capable of developing a pulling force of 90 kg
Power supply: lead-acid battery (2 hours at full speed) or lithium: 4 hours at full speed.
Communication, remote control: designed for a distance of 800 m. With a high gain antenna: 1200 m.
Four color cameras.
All systems can withstand immersion at 27 meters depth. Equipment is designed to operate under all temperature and climate conditions, in deserts, etc.
Audio communication (for the speaker and communications with troops).
Optional: all types of sensors.
Optional: X-ray analyzer, cannon.
The manipulator arm with a gripper can lift between 9 and 11 kg.
The robot can be equipped with a GPS guidance system
A long list of optional equipment: infrared vision system, spotlights, device to cut barbed wire.
User training: 2.5 days.
Parts guaranteed for one year.
**The "Talon" robot in Iraq. **
A soldier carrying a Talon on his back, with its manipulator arm folded (34 kg)
**The Talon robot can move in relatively rugged terrain. **
Talon robots with different equipment: rockets, cannon, rocket launcher.
The firing systems can be raised "at arm's length"
**The gripping claw in close-up, during night vision operations. **
These small robots have already been used in Iraq. Their durability has become legendary. One of them, having fallen from the roof of a vehicle, dropped into a river. The soldiers were able to recover it by maneuvering it remotely, underwater. These mini-robots can be considered only the beginning of a range that is certainly already very impressive. Let's say that in laboratories there are certainly machines much more sophisticated. What represents an absolute advantage in these new weapons is not so much their caliber or the range of gadgets they can deploy, but *a much more serious threat, that of the emergence of "adaptive robotics," otherwise known as "AI" or artificial intelligence (the ability given to machines to reprogram themselves). * I have addressed this theme in the form of a fiction in my book "The Year of Contact" (Albin Michel 2004). See on my homepage. Little echo, no media coverage, low sales. *Yet a book that contains the key elements of this artificial intelligence, which, alas, when it emerges, will become an instrument of absolute domination in the hands of the worst humans. * ---
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