Robot Dog with Gun Turret for Hunting Aerial Drones Being Tested by Army | Hacker News Reader

Robot Dog with Gun Turret for Hunting Aerial Drones Being Tested by Army

twz.com

48 pointsnradov38 comments

If you ever find yourself asking whether or not we are living in the future yet, the question "Are robot dogs with guns hunting flying robots for military purposes?" might be a good barometer.

And I thought with the digital watch we are truly living in the future... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYPq9n5MAo0

Drone hunting robots exist, they are not evenly distributed yet.

What better way to drive acceptance of robot soldiers then to start out having them only hunting robots first.

And mimicking loveable pets

And remember Duck Hunt - classic

Robot animals with gun turrets make me think of Horizon: Zero Dawn.

For example, the Ravager: https://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/horizon-ze...

What about aerial drones flying over seas? Are we going to get, at long last, sharks with lasers?

I mean, yes?

Unmanned Sea Vehicles are currently the big thing in Ukraine and an obvious application for them is supporting naval vessels to expand their intercept range for low-valie flying targets like the ones the Houthis have been throwing at ships.

If find it hard to believe that the Ghost Robotics platform could get more than a single shot off without falling over, or at least becoming unstable to the point of being incapable of firing further rounds. As others have said though, perhaps there is also a unique dispersal ammunition in use here that makes a single shot kill feasible? Like a grown up version of .22 rifle-chambered vermin shot, or some kind of miniature flak?

The compact-tractor Rheinmetall Mission Master, shown in the article, seems a far more likely platform with the downside that they nearly are two orders of magnitude bigger (500kg payload vs 20kg for the GR Vision). A 20mm auto cannon turret firing air burst rounds would be effective against many more targets. It also carries your lunch for you (they are designed primarily as infantry packhorses.)

According to their website, the robot dog weighs 112 pounds (51 kg) and has four legs, not two, so it's both lower to the ground and has a wider stance compared to the average human. I don't see how shooting .223 is going to be an issue.

I agree that there might be a better weapon to use, but having it shoot the exact same ammunition as the accompanying infantry squad is probably more important.

This comment nails it: the point is to keep the logistics train simple.

An antidrone platform is much more useful if it uses the same 5.56 as the service rifle and squad machine guns.

When you can just improve the software/optics, well, why not?

Perhaps they just wanted to mount a rifle on a robot dog for eventually shooting people and used drones as cover. These are going to be used to shoot people.

Yep, and many of us said this years ago when we saw the Boston Scientific robot dogs.

Shooting 5.56 is very easy and placing the rifle at the front allows the back legs to withstand any recoil. A fast processor would allow the gun to fire even before the gun gimbal has come to a stop which would make follow up shots happen very fast. Knowing the orientation of the bot and gun could allow it to compensate for recoil, keeping the drone in the crosshairs for an immediate follow up shot.

The ones in Black Mirror could fire shrapnel at people and then other dogs could detect that shrapnel at long-range to hunt down the targets, but I'm not seeing that kind of functionality on any of these dogs.

Maybe the USA is keeping that part secret from adversaries, that's smart.

The video of the small unmanned vehicle carrying twin mininguns(!) for drone defense was rather nifty as well. If it had appeared in a video game, more than a few, myself included, would have declared it implausible but there it is.

Looking forward to US police departments getting these when our military does their yearly Goodwill drop offs...

Why do they have them running an M4? I would think a shotgun would be better for hunting drones.

Even bubba's pissin hot 3.5 inch magnum birdshot isn't going to reach above 300-400ft in altitude and its going to be extremely inaccurate if it gets there at all. I think most drones are typically flying above this.

Opportunity for a new type of firearm, perhaps? Part of the attraction of the shotgun is that the spray of shot lets the shooter be less accurate against moving targets. A hovering drone, being more stationary, would be a better target for a rifle.

If the robots get good at shooting down fast-moving drones, that'll be impressive and intimidating.

predicting trajectory of a projectile is what computers were first made to do, at least if you count ENIAC as the first, and the Apollo Guidance Computer not long after (the missile knows where it is at all times, it knows this because it knows where it isn't... [0])

as it happens the projectiles have minds of their own now so to predict trajectory will require theory-of-mind

shooting down fast moving drones might just be the path to self-awareness in the machine world, "if I were a drone, what action would I take in that situation..."

[0] https://youtu.be/bZe5J8SVCYQ

[0.b remix] https://youtu.be/_LjN3UclYzU

Not just fast-moving. Human-directed ones might move in a more predictable path, depending on the skill of a human operator. A formation of a few of them with more random-appearing evasion in their flight path would be a good exercise for the robot's targeting systems.

Range of a shotgun isn’t very far?

Could also be using tracer rounds to correct the aim.

There are decent mobile robot and pan/tilt platforms on Amazon for <$200. Hooking a gun and mobilenet up to this would be a Saturday afternoon project for most people here.

If you're worried about robots with guns that ship sailed a long time ago.

Indeed, live-shot.com was almost 20 years ago.

What about mounting it onto an actual dog?

pros:

• longer battery life • more mobility • easier to program • can chase drones that are flying low • capable of locating and disarming infantry

cons:

• May not always follow instructions • May not always sit still

This reminds me of the droid in the 1987 Robocop movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYsulVXpgYg

What could go wrong?

Must watch, from The Making of Robocop (1987)

https://youtu.be/COCz6psPmU0?feature=shared&t=1107

This explains the design of ED-209

> What could go wrong?

Not much more than with 1.2 guns per person [1].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian...

I think it would be a lot easier to get away with drivebys done with a drone.

> it would be a lot easier to get away with drivebys done with a drone

There is more to trace on a drone than a bullet.

The problem is distribution. Some folks skew the average a lot.

What's the ratio of killer drones per person?

Name it Nexus, after that timeless sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus.

Codename for the project: Wrecks.

Good dog. Now stop chasing the mechas before you get hurt.

MG-3 would be perfect

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