Killer robots to get silent-running whisper mode
Georgia Tech has announced plans to silence larger UAVs. From theregister.co.uk:
Some robotic aircraft are already very quiet – the small battery-powered aeroplanes, often hand-launched, which are used for infantry reconnaissance and perimeter security are almost totally silent. Electric quadcopters, as favoured in some situations by the Merseyside plods and (it is rumoured) the SAS, are also unobtrusive. Such technology typically causes a stir only when employed in the form of flying genitalia.
But larger machines, able to tool up with deadly weapons and wreak havoc among their puny human opponents, are much noisier. The racket of engines, propellors and whatnot – when at low level – often warns the hapless fleshies beneath, giving them a slim chance to hide or escape.
Gaeta and his colleagues want to take away that chance. The plan is to equip the roving robotic spyeyes and gun-platforms of tomorrow with Blue Thunder-style whisper mode*. The GIT team have apparently visited unnamed “US military installations” for the purpose of examining machines already in operation.
Silent death from above.
Anyone remember the SWAT Gunpods in “Virtual Light” or the “Spy-in-the-sky” in Judge Dredd? Stealthing these things is a sensible idea, as your common perp will not think twice about swatting these things, and even once about swatting an armed one. I doubt very much we’ll see armed variants serving in warfare (see above) or in countries such as my own lovely UK, where currently the Government still tries to show a life-friendly front. The real cause for concern with these would be Covert work, but then, why would you get much more complex than filling the casing of one of these with plastique and neurotoxins. It would be interesting to see what these could be armed with, whilst keeping them small. I’m currently trying to arm an indoor blimp with Nerf rockets, so I found this rather interesting.