"The Future is Now - Aerial Drone Tech" Topic

Looks like aerial drones, and the tech to control them are quickly becoming more sophisticated:

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I guess I need to increase the quantity allotted for my Sci-Fi squads, since I was only planning on 2 – 3 per squad.

Probably need to add a wheeled drone carrier/launcher for them as well, to follow the troops moving on the ground, autonomously.

These look awesome:

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I was just at a "spooks and geeks" type symposium and Drones are getting smarter, more capable and much more numerous. Hi-Def, Full Motion video; lidar; facial recognition… yeah this time it IS personal!

As one fellow put it; we're approaching the time where we will have so many collection platforms (read: drones) we'll cause a solar eclipse. The last time I heard talk like that it was connected to the Shadow of Mordor.

If you have more human(oid)s than robots, you're way off. I definitely recommend reading "Wired for War" (http://www.amazon.com/Wired-War-Robotics-Revolution-Conflict/dp/0143116843/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257260009&sr=8-1).

For absolute realism, every side should have a bunch of operators hunched over several screens each, with piles of empty pizza boxes, cans of Red Bull and Hostess HoHo wrappers strewn about.

The actual battlefield should be devoid of life, other than hapless civilians caught in the crossfire when identified as threats (50% chance). The actual fighting and is done by robots and drones.

In other words, just invert the video game paradigm. The operators are cyber (in the "matrix", as it were) and the robots are fighting it out in the real world. When the battle stops, the operators go away, and the world just burns.

- Bob

Is that before or after the machines rise up against us? :)

AT SIkorsky we are working on a fully pilotless Black Hawk. Next year it gets tested in deliverying a sling load robotically as well as flying in formation with a piloted UH-60.

I'll second "Wired for War". Great book – scary as hell.

I know I see quite a few pilotless cars on the road. There's people in them, but between putting on make-up, eating breakfast, or checking email on their iPhone, they're essentially unpiloted.

It's already begun!

My whole squadron was destroyed by a robotic drone attack a few years ago…

The MoD was testing a robotic Land Rover on the airfield when it went berserk and ploughed through a hangar, destroying all our gliders! ;o)

This is cool . . .

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Agreed, but it appears the flying drone is smart, and cowering behind the human walking point, in an attempt at self-preservation.

They learn quickly, don't they…..

ooof… autonomous helos… considering that most people can't fly one, I'm not sure I trust a robot driving one either.

and TGA, that drone isn't integral to the squad, it's run by the chair farce. The troops are just 'lucky' enough to have one in the area to give them intel.