Australian Army training against Segway robots!

[thewayne]

This is pretty awesome. They can actually shoot the robots (i.e. sniper training) and have the other robots react to the shot and take cover!

They can be run as remote-control devices, or programmed for scenarios that could be altered by the programming on the fly as the robots take casualties. They can also be programmed for hostage situations where one or more of the robots are hostages being shepherded around by the bad guys.

Very cool stuff. I believe in providing the highest quality training to people who might have to take lives, and this is a definite step in the right direction.

http://singularityhub.com/2010/04/12/video-of-newest-sniper-targets-robots-on-segways/

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/10/04/12/2056245/Aussie-Army-Trains-With-Fleet-of-Robots-On-Segways

Comments

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

Also, a good excuse to blow up Segways.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Is there such a thing as a bad excuse for blowing up Segways?

We flew to Baltimore early this month, and the cops at BWI use Segways. One of them was moving it between points apparently trying to find a plug to recharge it. In Phoenix, the cops ride mountain bikes inside the airport.

[kylejcrb.livejournal.com]

I just have to wonder, what was wrong with the bike anyway? I mean, an excuse to be lazy isn't worth the price tag.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The only advantage that I could see that a Segway would offer is height. An average sized person would be at least a foot above crowd height, and so would more easily see bad stuff doing on. But the bike would be much faster. The bike would also probably have more carrying capacity: I've seen bikes configured for EMTs that had defibrillators and oxygen on them.

[silveradept]

Neat. I can see that kind of technology being used in other ways - laser tag or squad-based combat games so that people can feel more like they are the real thing.