Is this the prequel to "The Terminator" or "The Matrix"?

[underpants]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/gunslinging_robot

[htuttle]

1. So, how would they cross a 4 foot trench?

Or scale a 2 foot wall?

They can't? Oh. Nice.

HOW much did they cost?

:eyes:

[underpants]

2. I had to change the poll around a bit

I hope is in the form you replied to.

[underpants]

4. Answer 1-Not YET Answer 2-$200K each

The $200,000, armed version will carry standard-issue Squad Automatic Weapons, either the M249, which fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of 750 per minute, or the M240, which can fire about 700 to 1,000 7.62-millimeter rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire about 300 rounds using the M240 and about 350 rounds using the M249 before needing to reload.

[htuttle]

11. Hmm...considering that you could disable it with a rope lasso

...I'm not sure that's a very good deal for the money.

(sneak up behind of it's non-existent peripheral vision, throw a lasso over the camera post, yank it on it's side)

It's probably a really good way to supply 'insurgents' with M249's and ammo, but why do they want to do that?

[7th_Sephiroth]

3. hmm 8 mile range and 2 hours of opperating time

either thats a lie and WTF is with the Sword?

[underpants]

5. What the S.W.O.R.D.?

catchy name huh?

[Rush1184]

6. Neither....

It is lacking a component that was very important to both the terminator and the matrix: Artificial Intelligence. As this device cannot think on its own, it is just like any other robot, dependent upon its human operators.

[underpants]

7. Sure right now it is

but this is just the initial model. :scared:

[Rush1184]

9. Still, we are along way from producing a machine that is self-aware...

This machine is closer to an RC car with a gun on top than a terminator. The whole basis of those two movies was to show what could happen if a machine is self-aware, with out that factor, it is really nothing new.

[UdoKier]

10. It's horrifying.

Killing machines that never question orders, have no conscience of fear?

You think the Bushfreaks operate without regard for human life NOW...

[Rush1184]

12. Except for the fact that they are controlled by humans...

Sure, the machines have not conscience or fear, but the guy controlling it does. And if you read the article, it has to be controled by a person.

[UdoKier]

15. Turns killing into even more of a video game than it is.

Still scary.

[underpants]

14. "They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars."

Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

[alvis]

8. Johhny 5 is alive!

Short Circuit?

[DrWeird]

13. boondoggle.

So who builds the things?

[underpants]

16. Is that a rhetorical question?

It was a joint development process between the Army and Foster-Miller, a robotics firm bought in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is a partnership between the British Ministry of Defence and the Washington holding company The Carlyle Group.

Oh and this from earlier in the article



Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics Corp.

[Strelnikov_]

17. More Like Robocop, Remember The 'Enforcement Droid ED-209'

Dick Jones, Vice-President of Omni Consumer Products, berating Bob Morton for killing his deal:

"I had a guaranteed military sale with ED209! Renovation program! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not! "

[DS1]

18. Jesus, leave the battery and ammo can exposed why don't you?

Idiots.

[Strelnikov_]

Thats What I Thought

Quick burst of an AK and this thing will be a piece of expensive scrap metal.

[DS1]

19. I could spend 300 bucks building an RC car with some C4 strapped

to it and make something that would take this thing out in seconds.

Just get an extra servo channel for the bomb trigger :eyes:

[Blue_Tires]

20. prequel to Half-Life 2

[bobbyboucher]

21. I think that I could get the upper hand on this POS, much less

an experienced terroist or insurgent.