Bear robot rescues wounded troops

[safan80]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6729745.stm
you know you want your own!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/43020000/jpg/_43020651_robot_image203x295.jpg

Bear robot rescues wounded troops
The US military is developing a robot with a teddy bear-style head to help carry injured soldiers away from the battlefield.

The Battlefield Extraction Assist Robot (BEAR) can scoop up even the heaviest of casualties and transport them over long distances over rough terrain.

New Scientist magazine reports that the "friendly appearance" of the robot is designed to put the wounded at ease.

It is expected to be ready for testing within five years.

While it is important to get medical attention for injured soldiers as soon as possible, it is often difficult and dangerous for their comrades to reach them and carry them back.

The 6ft tall Bear can cross bumpy ground without toppling thanks to a combination of gyroscopes and computer controlled motors to maintain balance.


BEAR FACTS
1. Teddy bear face designed to be reassuring
2. Hydraulic upper body carries up to 227kgs (500lbs)
3. When kneeling tracked "legs" travel over rubble. Switches to wheels on smooth surfaces
4. Dynamic Balance Behaviour (DBB) technology allows the robot to stand and carry loads upright on its ankles, knees or hips for nearly an hour

It is also narrow enough to squeeze through doorways, but can lift 135kg with its hydraulic arms in a single smooth movement, to avoid causing pain to wounded soldiers.

While the existing prototype slides its arms under its burden like a forklift, future versions will be fitted with manoeuvrable hands to gently scoop up casualties.

The Bear is controlled remotely and has cameras and microphones through which an operator sees and hears.

It can even tackle stairs while carrying a human-sized dummy.

Daniel Theobald, the president of Vecna Technologies, which is developing the robot for the US Army, said: "We saw a need for a robot that can essentially go where a human can. The robot will be an integral part of a military team."

Gary Gilbert, from the US Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Centre in Frederick, Maryland, said that the teddy bear appearance was deliberate.

"A really important thing when you're dealing with casualties is trying to maintain that human touch."

Vecna is working on other potential applications for the robot technology - including helping move heavy patients in hospital.

[kuhla]

Oh boy is that picture decieving. See below:

link --> http://www.time.com/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/inventions/military.html

The Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR), developed for military search-and-rescue missions, has hydraulic arms that can support injured soldiers weighing up to 400 lbs. (more than most troopers in full gear) and a system of wheels, tracks and joints that enable it to maneuver in all sorts of positions. It can balance on its back wheels to climb up a steep hill or roll over rough terrain while staying low to the ground. For now the BEAR needs a human to drive it via remote control, but a more autonomous version is in the works.


http://img.timeinc.net/time/2006/techguide/bestinventions/images/new/battlebot.jpg

[p8ntslinger676]

i would much rather just give the robot a gun instead and not have the troops out there:rolleyes:

Robot army:D

[Colossous]

Re-assuring face ha ha ha !! :rofl:

[eXceededgoku]

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/terminator_robot.jpg
http://perso.orange.fr/mdi/images/bckgrd/bckgrd_big/terminator_004.jpg
You do that whilst I start building my bunker ;)

[jabway]

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/terminator_robot.jpg

Robot army.... no thanks.

[xoqolatl]

i would much rather just give the robot a gun instead and not have the troops out there:rolleyes:

Robot army:D

So true. I guess it's easier and cheaper to make a bulletproof robot with a gun that shoots targets enemy soldiers. And such robot works ALWAYS, whereas Bear works only if something goes wrong --> there are wounded.

[mion]

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/terminator_robot.jpg
http://perso.orange.fr/mdi/images/bckgrd/bckgrd_big/terminator_004.jpg
You do that whilst I start building my bunker ;)


Now lets get Terminator Vs. Robocop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86ltDTU1R8A

[turbox997]

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/terminator_robot.jpg


Now that's one "reassuring face" hahaha...you don't know if it's coming to kill
you or help you. :rofl:

[Kaze06]

Oh trust me..I think you know..

[WRC]

like it was mentioned, just make some shooting robots to drastically reduce the amount of injured/dead soldiers, i know the technology is out there just not fully developed yet

[clayton]

I think that'll change the way, countries will have war. Robots vs robots.

[Turok]

ok, all they have to do is make cheap carts with a turret gun over it. I don't get why by now robots aren't being used for warfare. They don't die as easily, they are more accurate, and they don't risk lives. The only thing that seems to be a problem is stealth, real-time communication with the bot, image clarity, field of vision, and... maybe hackers :p:

[justin_c]

lol, i find it kinda amusing :P
rather put a machine gun on that thing than send fellow men to fight. robot army FTW!!

[Chewbenator]

The DMZ in Korea supposedly has armed defense robots. But I think the design is too big and bulky to deploy in hot zones where this kind of thing goes down. To have to call up a cow sized robot in the middle of a fire-fight when one of your guys goes down is a bit hard I would think.

[p8ntslinger676]

damn i forget to take into account the fact that the robots would eventually turn on us :(

[[XC] gomeler]

Armed ground-robots are already available but they are little tracked vehicle things, not terminators. I'm sure it'll soon get to the point where we have robots that are better at killing humans than humans are, then we just pray they can't be hacked. Robots + Cyber war = new face of combat?

[Entity_Razer]

a robot army... its "easy" to program it to headshot (might sound cruel but its a lot better imo then cripple a person for life or letting them bleed to death)

problem is, how will he recognize friendly faces from enemy...


facial recognition is pretty easy to do if your a decent programmer and mility will have tons of those, problem is keeping it safe for your own ppl.

tbh i'd opt for aerial attack robots like the drones US military uses now.
just change then to be quicker (in & out, Boom'n Zoom style fighting) and cary a heavier payload.

preferably non lethal payload (knockout gas/teargas...)

having those puppy's patrolling a hotzone thats "open" would be a lot easier then to get robot like ppl in.


BTW what i wonder is the following, why isn't the US military using automated gun turrets?

again the software is there, the hardware is there but? for sentry duty i mean. i know they do on aircraft carriers etc to intercept missiles that are inbound but i don't get it why they don't do the same for landbased application? would save troops on both sides since no one'd be foolish enough to go walking smack in the middle of a turret coverd field

[oublie]

a robot army... its "easy" to program it to headshot (might sound cruel but its a lot better imo then cripple a person for life or letting them bleed to death)


Its better to cripple than kill in warefare. the reason being that humans have feelings because it will take more manpower to look after 1 wounded soldier than a dead one. One of but not the only reason the british army moved from the 7.62 round to the 5.56 round was that there was a higher chance of a major wound rather than outright death which meant you took out more than one man i.e. the wounded soldier, the guy looking after him and a medical team trained to fix him up.



problem is, how will he recognize friendly faces from enemy...




USA had the same problem during desert storm. :frag:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Friendly_fire

[turbox997]

Its better to cripple than kill in warefare. the reason being that humans have feelings because it will take more manpower to look after 1 wounded soldier than a dead one. One of but not the only reason the british army moved from the 7.62 round to the 5.56 round was that there was a higher chance of a major wound rather than outright death which meant you took out more than one man i.e. the wounded soldier, the guy looking after him and a medical team trained to fix him up.

Robots have feelings too!! And rights too!!! heh....jk...animatrix...but one day people will argue this till death, and hopefully not in my life time.

[ahmad]

a robot army... its "easy" to program it to headshot (might sound cruel but its a lot better imo then cripple a person for life or letting them bleed to death)

problem is, how will he recognize friendly faces from enemy...


facial recognition is pretty easy to do if your a decent programmer and mility will have tons of those, problem is keeping it safe for your own ppl.

tbh i'd opt for aerial attack robots like the drones US military uses now.
just change then to be quicker (in & out, Boom'n Zoom style fighting) and cary a heavier payload.

preferably non lethal payload (knockout gas/teargas...)

having those puppy's patrolling a hotzone thats "open" would be a lot easier then to get robot like ppl in.


BTW what i wonder is the following, why isn't the US military using automated gun turrets?

again the software is there, the hardware is there but? for sentry duty i mean. i know they do on aircraft carriers etc to intercept missiles that are inbound but i don't get it why they don't do the same for landbased application? would save troops on both sides since no one'd be foolish enough to go walking smack in the middle of a turret coverd field

For every bomb or missle dropped or fired the US is losing at least a few hundred thousand dollars. Humans cost what, $70,000 a year? A robot to fight like this would easily cost a few million dollars to make, and many more millions to program and make effective.

I think we need to stop worrying about casualties and start looking at the results, no? Isn't that what the american army is after?

[kiwi]

And then robots decide to take over the world and attack humans :eek:

[FragTek]

I think the future of land-based warfare will be heavily armored mech suits. Fitted with weapons guidance systems, enough power to carry insane amounts of ammunition, and mount very high ROF guns should put a twist on things in the battlefield. :)

[oublie]

Actually I see the complete reverse of this with less physical presence on the battlefield and longer ranged strategic and covert operations being the effective tools of a future war. To my mind this seems to be the way things have moved since war begun.

1. Primarily hand to hand warfare.
2. Use of sticks and stones
3. Use of knives, swords and pikes
4. Use of the longbow and trebuchet
5. Guns & Cannons
6. Rifles, heavy Artillary & Light Aircraft
7. Missiles & Rockets & heavy Aircraft
8. Long range or ICBM's with very heavy long range strategic bombing

From where i stand the purpose of the battlefield soldier is now to mop up the leftovers and quell insurgence. The future i think will be more involved with the use of electronic and financial warfare as it is very difficult to wage war with no finances or communication. In this situation the people of the country you are attacking in a best case scenario would do your work for you as they would want to depose the govenment due to financial and social issues. This would mean that a small highly trained and highly efficient force could be used to get rid of what was left. So the next step in the evolution of warfare would be.

9. Electronic warfare, Commercial terrorism & planned insurgency backed by a military force powerful enough to clean up the leftovers.

This of course is only my view.

[RaZz!]

http://www.solarnavigator.net/images/terminator_robot.jpg
You do that whilst I start building my bunker ;)

imagine such robot troops in action.

terrorist1: "look at this robot thingy there walking in our direction!"
terrorist2: "WTF, this thing looks like... TERMINATOR! ZOMG!1"

this will make them crap their pants imo!

( ;) )

[mion]

Speaking of robots, recent news from yahoo robot toddler
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_hi_te/toddler_robot

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070608/capt.tok11506081307.japan_toddler_robot_tok115.jpg ?x=380&y=305&sig=XKJ0GdvZTwcDqvY6UO4oCg--

[eXceededgoku]

Speaking of robots, recent news from yahoo robot toddler
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070608/ap_on_hi_te/toddler_robot

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070608/capt.tok11506081307.japan_toddler_robot_tok115.jpg ?x=380&y=305&sig=XKJ0GdvZTwcDqvY6UO4oCg--

HMMM I've seen this before somewhere:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/2006/grudge/grudge2.jpg