The technology for creating androids is developing at a crazy speed. Robots are becoming eerily similar to humans, both in appearance and in their characteristics. Scientists have already calculated that in a couple of decades robots will become a part of our lives, working for the benefit of a person and his family. Here is just a small list of 15 robots that are eerily similar (especially in appearance) to humans.
The world's first android newscaster spoke about the earthquake and FBI raid in Tokyo on June 24, 2014.
In fact, two androids were created - a "girl android" (kodomoroid), which can read the news in different voices and in different languages, and a "female android" (otonaroid), who will play the role of an information dissemination specialist at the National Museum of Advanced science and technology, or simply Miraikan.
BINA48 - female robot head
The woman's memories, beliefs and core personality traits were translated into one robot called Bina48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second processing speed and 48 exabytes of memory).
The robot itself is quite complexly designed and is capable of communicating on the topic of philosophy, identifying the racist tendencies of the interlocutor, and even telling jokes.
It is worth noting that the name of the robot comes from the name of the wife of the company founder Terasem Movement Foundation, who created the robot, Bina Aspen.
For 20 hours they talked with her on various topics, ranging from childhood to career. Next, all the information was uploaded into an artificial intelligence database. Robot designer David Hansen created only a bust of Bina, but it cost US$125,000.
Patient simulator SimMan 3G
This robot was created so that doctors could improve their knowledge and skills by practicing on this simulator. The machine may be quite useful, but it looks a little scary, especially when it begins to simulate bleeding, convulsions, screaming and foaming at the mouth.
SimMan 3G was created to simulate almost any situation described in a medical book.
Geminoid F - female robot
Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro outdid himself when he created Geminoid F, a female-like android that can smile, move its eyebrows, talk and even sing.
To make the face, it was necessary to use 12 control mechanisms that operate using air pressure. This allows the android to recreate human facial expressions.
Geminoid F is so realistic that he even played the female role in one of the performances in Tokyo.
Geminoid DK - living robot
Another creation by Ishiguro recreates the image of Henrik Scharfe, an associate professor at the Danish University of Aalborg University. According to the inventor, his goal was to understand the “emotional capabilities” of the robot when communicating with a person.
In the video you can see how realistic facial movements, blinking and mouth movements are.
Simroid - dental training robot
Perhaps the most disgusting thing about this robot is the fact that the "skin" around its mouth is so elastic that it can be stretched much further than human skin without it cracking. The robot's oral cavity is stuffed with sensors so that the robot can simulate pain or discomfort.
The robot may also grumble if the doctor accidentally bumps it with his elbow.
Albert Hubo - Robot Einstein
The robot (or rather the robot head), which looks a lot like Albert Einstein, runs on AA batteries. It boasts realistic facial expressions and the head can be attached to the robot body. In addition, the robot can speak in a voice similar to the voice of Einstein himself.
HRP-4C - human robot
This robot was designed to look like an ordinary Japanese teenager. HRP-4C went through several stages of technological evolution - at first it could only talk, then it began to sing, and then it could dance (albeit a little strangely). Like most robots, this model could not simulate human gait until it went through the next stage of improvement.
Although this robot still walks a little unevenly, many improvements have made it more realistic than other androids.
FACE - a robot with a flexible face
Can a robot express emotions so convincingly that it's scary? This is precisely the goal pursued by the Italian developers of the FACE robot. Their robot is equipped with 32 mechanisms located in the skull and torso to simulate various expressions. The robot is capable of conveying feelings of fear, anger, disgust, surprise, joy and sadness.
ASIMO is a robot that can do almost anything
The robot, built by Honda, can run, climb stairs, jump and kick a ball. Besides this, he can also perform various activities with his hands. With five fingers he can open the cap of a sealed bottle and pour the juice into glasses. This huge number of possibilities is the result of the many sensors built into the arm, which work in conjunction with cameras installed in the robot's eyes.
PETMAN - military robot
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created many robots for various missions, but PETMAN may be the most amazing of them all. The robot, which looks like a man dressed in a camouflage suit, can climb stairs, do push-ups, run and do many other movements on the battlefield.
Alice - the first realistic android from Russia
A group of specialists from the Neurobotics company were involved in the creation of the very first Russian android robot. Of course, this robot cannot compare with its Japanese counterparts, which contain about 30 moving mechanisms for smoother movements. Alice has only 8 such mechanisms. And yet the robot can be controlled using a gamepad. You can perform basic movements of the robot's eyes and mouth.
It is worth noting that the android’s head is mounted on the body of a regular mannequin, which in turn is attached to a cart with wheels, which allows the robot to move. Inside the cart you can find batteries to supply the robot with energy.
The robot can use Skype to communicate, and cameras installed in the android's eyes transmit video. Microphones are used to transmit audio. It remains to be seen when this robot will be perfected.
Giant robotic female wrestlers
These robots are the attraction of Tokyo's first robot restaurant. It cost US$125.8 million to build the eatery and lounge, despite having a mostly drinks menu.
Androids in bikinis, with legs that look like they were borrowed from Transformers, can wrestle each other to the music of Lady Gaga, and visitors will have to shell out $50 to watch them wrestle.
RoBoy is a 3D printed robot
Roboy is a humanoid created using a 3D printer. It was built to help doctors diagnose stroke victims and understand how the brain and body interact.
"RoBoy will simulate diseases that doctors need to diagnose," said Raphael Gosteller, head of the Roboy project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He added that all the data can be further used in the field of prosthetics.
The robot was created by a team of more than 40 engineers and scientists. It has soft, elastic skin, modular muscles, and to better imitate human muscles, engineers attached coil springs to them.
The most difficult part of creating the robot was constructing the arms. They were first 3D printed along with the joints. After this, a large number of wires were inserted inside, placing them along thin channels.
To improve the muscles, ligaments and related electronics work, a team was assembled from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Zurich and the Myorobotics Research Project, which is overseen by the Embedded Systems Laboratory of the Technical University of Munich.
RoBoy was first presented to the public in March 2013 in Zurich. After this, his world tour began. The robot demonstrated its skills at various exhibitions and theaters.
The technology for creating androids is developing at a crazy speed. Robots become eerily similar to people, both in appearance and in their characteristics.Scientists have already calculated that in a couple of decades robots will become a part of our lives, working for the benefit of a person and his family.
Here is just a small list of 15 robots that are eerily similar (especially in appearance) to humans.
The world's first robot news anchor
The world's first android newscaster spoke about the earthquake and FBI raid in Tokyo on June 24, 2014.
In fact, two androids were created - an "android girl" (kodomoroid), who can read the news in different voices and in different languages, and a "female android" (otonaroid), who will play the role of an information dissemination specialist at the National Museum of Advanced science and technology, or simply Miraikan.
BINA48 - female robot head
The woman's memories, beliefs and core personality traits were translated into one robot called Bina48 (Breakthrough Intelligence via Neural Architecture, 48 exaflops per second processing speed and 48 exabytes of memory).
The robot itself is quite complexly designed and is capable of communicating on the topic of philosophy, identifying the racist tendencies of the interlocutor, and even telling jokes.
It is worth noting that the name of the robot comes from the wife of the company founder Terasem Movement Foundation, who created the robot, Bina Aspen.
For 20 hours they talked with her on various topics, ranging from childhood to career. Next, all the information was uploaded into an artificial intelligence database. Robot designer David Hansen created only a bust of Bina, but it cost US$125,000.
Patient simulator SimMan 3G
This robot was created so that doctors could improve their knowledge and skills by practicing on this simulator.
The machine may be quite useful, but it looks a little scary, especially when it begins to simulate bleeding, convulsions, screaming and foaming at the mouth.
SimMan 3G was created to simulate almost any situation described in a medical book.
Geminoid F - female robot
Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro outdid himself when he created Geminoid F, a female-like android that can smile, move its eyebrows, talk and even sing.
To make the face, it was necessary to use 12 control mechanisms that operate using air pressure. This allows the android to recreate human facial expressions.
Geminoid F is so realistic that he even played the female role in one of the performances in Tokyo.
Geminoid DK - living robot
Another creation by Ishiguro recreates the image of Henrik Scharfe, an associate professor at the Danish University of Aalborg University.
According to the inventor, his goal was to understand the “emotional capabilities” of the robot when communicating with a person.
Simroid - dental training robot
Perhaps the most disgusting thing about this robot is the fact that the "skin" around its mouth is so elastic that it can be stretched much further than human skin without it cracking.
The robot's oral cavity is stuffed with sensors so that the robot can simulate pain or discomfort.
The robot may also grumble if the doctor accidentally bumps it with his elbow.
Albert Hubo - robot Einstein
The robot (or rather the robot head), which looks a lot like Albert Einstein, runs on AA batteries.
It boasts realistic facial expressions and the head can be attached to the robot body.
HRP-4C - human robot
This robot was designed to look like an ordinary Japanese teenager.
HRP-4C went through several stages of technological evolution - at first it could only talk, then it began to sing, and then it could dance (albeit a little strangely).
Like most robots, this model could not simulate human gait until it went through the next stage of improvement.
Although this robot still walks a little unevenly, many improvements have made it more realistic than other androids.
FACE - a robot with a flexible face
Can a robot express emotions so convincingly that it's scary? This is precisely the goal pursued by the Italian developers of the FACE robot.
Their robot is equipped with 32 mechanisms located in the skull and torso to simulate various expressions.
The robot is capable of conveying feelings of fear, anger, disgust, surprise, joy and sadness.
ASIMO is a robot that can do almost anything
The robot, built by Honda, can run, climb stairs, jump and kick a ball.
Besides this, he can also perform various activities with his hands. With five fingers he can open the cap of a sealed bottle and pour the juice into glasses.
This huge number of possibilities is the result of the many sensors built into the arm, which work in conjunction with cameras installed in the robot's eyes.
PETMAN - military robot
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has created many robots for various missions, but PETMAN may be the most amazing of them all.
The robot, which looks like a man dressed in a camouflage suit, can climb stairs, do push-ups, run and do many other movements on the battlefield.
Alice - the first realistic android from Russia
A group of specialists from the Neurobotics company were involved in the creation of the very first Russian android robot.
Of course, this robot cannot compare with its Japanese counterparts, which contain about 30 moving mechanisms for smoother movements. Alice has only 8 such mechanisms.
And yet the robot can be controlled using a gamepad. You can perform basic movements of the robot's eyes and mouth.
It is worth noting that the android’s head is mounted on the body of a regular mannequin, which in turn is attached to a cart with wheels, which allows the robot to move. Inside the cart you can find batteries to supply the robot with energy.
The robot can use Skype to communicate, and cameras installed in the android's eyes transmit video. Microphones are used to transmit audio.
Robots from America, Europe, Korea, Russia that can run and walk up stairs, work as waiters, play the violin and talk, do push-ups and empathize
Asimo, Japan
The company has been developing it for 30 years, the current generation is the 11th. One of the smartest. It has a magnesium frame, runs at a speed of 6 km/h, recognizes dozens of voice commands and gestures, takes and gives objects, and can walk with a person by the hand. Not for sale, but for rent. Creator: Honda Motor Company Height 130 cm, weight 54 kgPetman, USA
One of the fastest and most “human-like” moving robots. Can walk on difficult surfaces, overcome obstacles, crawl, do push-ups, etc. Created by order of the US Department of Defense, not used commercially. Creator: Boston Dynamics Height 175 cm, weight 80 kgLS3 (Legged Squad Support Systems), USA
The military robot can automatically follow the leader specified to it or, using GPS, independently reach its destination. (Not an android in the strict sense, but made in the image and likeness of a living creature, so Forbes decided to include it on the list.) Can move and navigate rough terrain - “anywhere a soldier or marine can go.” Created by order of the US Department of Defense. The fuel reserve is enough to cover 32 km and operate for 24 hours. Speed on a flat road is up to 11 km/h. Producer: Boston Dynamics Load capacity 180 kg, dimensions and weight not disclosed.Hubo, South Korea
Able to remember and recognize faces. Can repeat movements after a person. Good skills in interacting with complex objects: able to ride a two-wheeled Segway scooter and wade through rubble. Has increased stability. Creator: Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Height 125 cm, weight 45 kgNao, France
The most popular anthropomorphic robot: more than 3,000 units sold worldwide. Widely used for teaching programming. The average price is €10,000, in Russia - 700,000 rubles. Widely used in world robot soccer competitions. Able to get up from a lying position. Creator: Aldebaran Robotics Height 58 cm, weight 4.3 kgViolin Playing Robot, Japan
One of the representatives of a whole series of robots positioned as female anthropomorphs - nanny robots, caregivers, etc. Hand movements are so precise that he can play the violin inexpressively, but without errors. Creator: Toyota Motor Corporation Height 152 cm, weight 56 kgAR-600, Russia
The only one of many Russian developments that has reached the stage of production and sale of finished robots. The development cost 300 million rubles. Able to walk at speeds up to 3 km/h, climb and descend stairs. One of the control methods is using an exoskeleton that the operator puts on: the robot copies his movements. Able to operate with small objects of various shapes. Creator: "Android Technology" Height 150 cm, weight 60 kgRepliee, Japan
It has a face with 13 degrees of freedom and can imitate human facial expressions. Recognizes human speech and gestures, responds to touch, and supports dialogue. Recognizes and searches for objects. Silicone coating imitates human skin. Creator: Osaka Intelligent Robotics Laboratory Height 160 cm, weight 88 kgSince the emergence of natural sciences, scientists have dreamed of creating a mechanical man capable of replacing him in a number of areas of human activity: in hard and unattractive jobs, in war and in high-risk areas. These dreams often outpaced reality, and then mechanical wonders appeared before the eyes of the amazed public, which were still very far from a real robot. But time passed, and robots became more and more perfect... very far from a real robot. But time passed, and the robots became more and more perfect...
Robots of antiquity and the Middle Ages
The first mentions of artificial humanoid creatures performing various jobs can be found already in the mythology of ancient peoples. These are the golden mechanical assistants of the god Hephes, described in the Iliad, and artificial creatures from the Indian Upanishads, androids of the Karelian-Finnish epic “Kalevala”, and the Golem from the Hebrew legend. How far these fantastic stories correspond to reality is not for us to judge. In reality, the very first “humanoid” robot was built in Ancient Greece.
The name of Heron, who worked in Alexandria and therefore was nicknamed Alexandrian, is mentioned in modern encyclopedias around the world, briefly retelling the contents of his manuscripts.
Two thousand years ago, he completed his work, in which he systematically outlined the main scientific achievements of the ancient world in the field of applied mathematics and mechanics (and the names of individual sections of this work: “Mechanics”, “Pneumatics”, “Metrics” - sound quite modern).
Reading these sections, you are amazed at how much his contemporaries knew and were able to do. Heron described devices (“simple machines”) using the principles of action of a lever, gate, wedge, screw, block; he assembled numerous mechanisms driven by liquid or heated steam; outlined the rules and formulas for the exact and approximate calculation of various geometric figures. However, in the works of Heron there are descriptions not only of simple machines, but also of automata that operate without direct human participation on the basis of principles that are still used today.
Not a single state, no society, team, family, not a single person could ever exist without measuring time in one way or another. And methods for such measurements were invented in ancient times. Thus, a clepsydra, a water clock, appeared in China and India. This device has become widespread. In Egypt, the clepsydra was used back in the 16th century BC along with the sundial. It was used in Greece and Rome, and in Europe it counted time until the 18th century AD. Total - almost three and a half millennia!
In his writings, Heron mentions the ancient Greek mechanic Ctesibius. Among the latter’s inventions and designs there is a clepsydra, which even now could serve as a decoration for any exhibition of technical creativity. Imagine a vertical cylinder placed on a rectangular stand. There are two figures mounted on this stand. Water is poured into one of these figures, representing a crying child. The child's tears flow into a vessel in the clepsydra stand and raise a float placed in this vessel, connected to a second figure - a woman holding a pointer. The figure of a woman rises, the pointer moves along the cylinder, which serves as the dial of this watch, showing the time. The day in Ctesibius's clepsydra was divided into 12 day "hours" (from sunrise to sunset) and 12 night "hours". When the day ended, the drain of accumulated water opened, and under its influence the cylindrical dial rotated 1/365 of a full revolution, indicating the next day and month of the year. The child continued to cry, and the woman with the sign began her journey again from the bottom up, indicating the day and night “hours”, previously agreed upon with the time of sunrise and sunset that day.
Time-keeping machines were the first machines created for practical purposes. Therefore, they are of particular interest to us. However, Heron in his writings describes other machines that were also used for practical purposes, but of a completely different nature: in particular, the first vending machine known to us - a device that dispensed “holy water” for money in Egyptian temples.
* * *
It is not surprising that it was among watchmakers that outstanding craftsmen appeared who amazed the whole world with their products. Their mechanical creatures, similar in appearance to animals or humans, were capable of performing a variety of movements similar to those of animals or humans, and the external shape and shell of the toy further enhanced its resemblance to a living creature.
It was then that the term “automatic machine” appeared, which until the beginning of the 20th century was understood, as indicated in ancient encyclopedic dictionaries,
“those machines that imitate the voluntary movements and actions of animate beings. In particular, they call an android a machine that produces human-like movements.”. (Note that “android” is a Greek word meaning humanoid.)
The construction of such an automatic machine could take years and decades, and even now it is not easy to understand how, using artisanal techniques, it was possible to create a whole lot of mechanical gears, place them in a small volume, link together the movements of many mechanisms, and select the necessary ratios of their sizes. All parts and links of the machines were made with pinpoint precision; at the same time, they were hidden inside the figures, setting them in motion according to a rather complex program.
We will not judge now how perfect “human-like” the movements of these automata and androids seemed then. It’s better to just give the floor to the author of the article “Automatic,” published in 1878 in the St. Petersburg Encyclopedic Dictionary:
“Much more amazing were the machines built in the last century by the French mechanic Vaucanson. One of his androids, known as the “flute player,” had, in a sitting position, along with its pedestal, 2 arsh. 51/2 inches in height (that is, about 170 cm), played 12 different pieces, producing sounds by simply blowing air from the mouth into the main hole of the flute and replacing its tones by the action of the fingers on other holes of the instrument.
Another Vaucanson android played a Provençal pipe with his left hand, played a tambourine with his right hand and clicked his tongue according to the custom of Provençal pipe players. Finally, the bronzed tin duck of the same mechanic - perhaps the most perfect of all automata known today - not only imitated with extraordinary accuracy all the movements, screams and grips of its original: swam, dived, splashed in the water, etc., but even pecked food with the greed of a living duck and carried out to the end (of course, with the help of chemicals hidden inside it) the usual process of digestion.
All these automata were publicly shown by Vaucanson in Paris in 1738.
No less amazing were the machines of Vaucanson's contemporaries, the Swiss Dro. One of the machines they made, an android girl, played the piano, another - in the form of a 12-year-old boy sitting on a stool at the console - wrote a few phrases in French from the copybook, dipped a pen in an inkwell, shook off excess ink from it, observed perfect correctness in the placement of lines and words and generally followed all the movements of the scribes...
Dro's best work is considered to be a watch presented to Ferdinand VI of Spain, with which a whole group of different machines was connected: a lady sitting on the balcony was reading a book, occasionally sniffing tobacco and, apparently, listening to a musical play played out by the clock; a tiny canary fluttered and sang; the dog guarded the basket of fruit and, if someone took one of the fruits, barked until what was taken was put back in its place ... "
What can be added to the evidence of the ancient dictionary?
“The Scribe” was built by Pierre Jaquet-Droz, an outstanding Swiss watchmaker. Following this, his son Henri built another android - a “draftsman”. Then both mechanics - father and son together - also invented and built a “musician” who played the harmonium, hitting the keys with her fingers, and while playing, turned her head and followed the position of her hands with her eyes; her chest rose and fell, as if the “musician” was breathing.
In 1774, at an exhibition in Paris, these mechanical people enjoyed great success. Henri Jaquet-Droz then took them to Spain, where crowds of spectators expressed delight and admiration. But here the Holy Inquisition intervened, accused Dro of witchcraft and put him in prison, taking away the unique works he had created...
The creations of father and son Jacquet-Droz went through a difficult path, passing from hand to hand, and many qualified watchmakers and mechanics applied their labor and talent to them, restoring and repairing what was damaged by people and time, until the androids took their rightful place of honor in Switzerland - at the Museum of Fine Arts of Neuchâtel.
Mechanical soldiers
In the 19th century - the century of steam engines and fundamental discoveries - no one in Europe perceived mechanical creatures as “the devil's spawn”. On the contrary, they expected technical innovations from respectable scientists that would soon change the life of every person, making it easy and carefree. Technical science and invention reached a special flowering in Great Britain during the Victorian era.
The Victorian era is usually called the more than sixty-year period of Queen Victoria's reign of England: from 1838 to 1901. The steady economic growth of the British Empire during that period was accompanied by a flourishing of the sciences and arts. It was then that the country achieved hegemony in industrial development, trade, finance, and maritime transport.
England became the “industrial workshop of the world,” and it is not surprising that its inventors were expected to create a mechanical man. And some adventurers, taking advantage of the opportunity, learned to wishful thinking.
For example, back in 1865, a certain Edward Ellis, in his historical (?!) work “The Enormous Hunter, or the Steam Man on the Prairie,” told the world about a gifted designer, Johnny Brainerd, who allegedly was the first to build a “steam-powered man.”
According to this work, Brainerd was a small hunchbacked dwarf. He continuously invented different things: toys, miniature steamships and locomotives, wireless telegraph. One fine day, Brainerd got tired of his tiny crafts, he told his mother about this, and she suddenly suggested that he try to make a Steam Man. For several weeks, Johnny, captivated by the new idea, could not find a place for himself, and after several unsuccessful attempts, he finally built what he wanted.
Steam Man - rather, a steam locomotive in the form of a man:
“This mighty giant was approximately three meters tall; not a single horse could compare with him: the giant easily pulled a van with five passengers. Where ordinary people wear a hat, the Steam Man had a chimney pipe from which thick black smoke poured out.
The mechanical man had everything, even his face, made of iron, and his body was painted black. The extraordinary mechanism had a pair of seemingly frightened eyes and a huge grinning mouth.
He had a device in his nose, like a locomotive whistle, through which steam came out. Where a person's chest is, he had a steam boiler with a door for throwing logs into it.
His two hands held pistons, and the soles of his massive long legs were covered with sharp spikes to prevent slipping.
In the pack on his back there were valves, and on his neck there were reins with which the driver controlled the Steam Man, while on the left there was a cord to control the whistle in the nose. Under favorable circumstances, the Steam Man was capable of very high speeds."
According to eyewitness accounts, the first Steam Man could move at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour (about 50 km/h), and the wagon pulled by this mechanism was almost as stable as a railway carriage. The only serious drawback was the need to constantly carry a huge amount of firewood with you, because you had to continuously “feed” the Steam Man’s firebox.
Having become rich and educated, Johnny Brainerd wanted to improve his design, but instead, in 1875, he sold the patent to Frank Reed Sr. A year later, Reed built an improved version of the Steam Man, the Steam Man Mark II. The second “locomotive man” became half a meter taller (3.65 meters), received headlights instead of eyes, and the ashes from the burnt wood spilled onto the ground through special channels in his legs. The speed of the Mark II was also significantly higher than its predecessor - up to 50 mph (more than 80 km/h).
Despite the obvious success of the second Steam Man, Frank Reed Sr., disillusioned with steam engines in general, abandoned this idea and switched to electric models.
However, in February 1876, work began on the Steam Man Mark III: Frank Reed Sr. made a bet with his son, Frank Reed Jr., that it was impossible to significantly improve the second model of the Steam Man.
On May 4, 1879, in front of a small crowd of curious citizens, Reed Jr. demonstrated the Mark III model. A journalist from New York, Louis Senarens, became an “accidental” witness to this demonstration. His amazement at the technical wonder was so great that he became the official biographer of the Reed family.
It seems that Senarens was not a very conscientious chronicler, because history is silent about which of the Reeds won the bet. But it is known that along with the Steam Man, father and son also made a Steam Horse, which surpassed both Marks in speed.
One way or another, but in the same 1879, both Frank Reeds became irrevocably disillusioned with steam-powered mechanisms and began working with electricity.
In 1885, the first tests of the Electric Man took place. As you understand, today it is already difficult to understand how the Electric Man acted, what his abilities and speed were. In the surviving illustrations, we see that this machine had a fairly powerful spotlight, and potential enemies were awaited by “electrical discharges” that the Man shot directly from his eyes! Apparently the power source was located in a mesh-covered van. By analogy with the Steam Horse, the Electric Horse was created.
* * *
The Americans did not lag behind the British. A certain Louis Philip Perue from the city of Towanada, near Niagara Falls, built the Automatic Man in the late 1890s.
It all started with a small working model about 60 centimeters high. With this sample, Peru hit the thresholds of rich people, hoping to get funding for the construction of a full-size copy.
With his stories, he tried to capture the imagination of the “money bags”: a walking robot will go where no wheeled vehicle can go, a walking combat vehicle could make soldiers invulnerable, and so on and so forth.
In the end, Peru managed to persuade businessman Charles Thomas, with whom they founded the United States Automaton Company.
The work was carried out in an atmosphere of strict secrecy, and only when everything was completely ready did Peru decide to present his creation to the public. The development was completed in the early summer of 1900, and in October of the same year it was presented to the press, which immediately nicknamed Peru the Frankenstein of Tonawanda:
“This giant of wood, rubber and metals, who walks, runs, jumps, talks and rolls his eyes - imitates a person in almost everything exactly.”
Automatic Man was 7 feet 5 inches (2.25 meters) tall. He was dressed in a white suit, giant shoes and a matching hat - Peru tried to achieve maximum resemblance and, according to eyewitnesses, the hands of the machine looked the most realistic. The Man's skin was made of aluminum for lightness, the entire figure was supported by a steel structure.
The power source was a rechargeable battery. The operator sat in the back of the van, which was connected to the Automatic Man by a small metal tube.
The Man demonstration took place in Tonawanda's large showroom. The first movements of the robot disappointed the public: the steps were jerky, accompanied by crackling and noise.
However, when Peru's invention was "developed", the movement became smooth and almost silent.
The inventor of the man-machine said that the robot could walk at a fairly fast pace for an almost unlimited amount of time, but the figure said it all:
"I'm going to walk from New York to San Francisco"“, she said in a deep voice. The sound came from a device hidden on the Man's chest.
After the car, pulling a light van behind it, made several circles around the hall, the inventor placed a log in its path. The robot stopped, squinted at the obstacle, as if pondering the situation, and walked around the log.
Perew stated that Automatic Man was capable of covering a distance of 480 miles (772 km) in a day, moving at an average speed of 20 mph (32 km/h).
It is clear that in the Victorian era it was impossible to build a full-fledged android robot and the mechanisms described above were just wind-up toys designed to influence the gullible public - however, the idea itself lived and developed...
* * *
When the famous American writer Isaac Asimov formulated the three laws of robotics, the essence of which was the unconditional ban on a robot causing any harm to a person, he probably did not even realize that long before that the first robot soldier had already appeared in America. This robot was called Boilerplate and was created in the 1880s by Professor Archie Campion.
Campion was born on November 27, 1862 and from childhood was a very curious and knowledge-seeking boy. When Archie's sister's husband died in the Korean War in 1871, the young man was shocked. It is believed that it was then that Campion set himself the goal of finding a way to resolve conflicts without killing people.
Archie's father, Robert Campion, ran the first company in Chicago to produce computers, which undoubtedly influenced the future inventor.
In 1878, the young man got a job, becoming an operator for the Chicago Telephone Company, where he gained experience as a technical specialist. Archie's talents eventually brought him a good and stable income - in 1882 he received many patents for his inventions, from casement pipelines to multi-stage electrical systems. Over the next three years, royalties from the patents made Archie Campion a millionaire. It was with these millions in his pocket that in 1886 the inventor suddenly turned into a recluse - he built a small laboratory in Chicago and began working on his robot.
From 1888 to 1893, nothing was heard about Campion, until he suddenly announced himself at the International Columbian Exposition, where he presented his robot named Boilerplate.
Despite the extensive advertising campaign, very little material has been preserved about the inventor and his robot. We have already noted that the Boilerplate was conceived as a means of bloodless conflict resolution - in other words, it was a prototype of a mechanical soldier.
Although the robot existed in a single copy, it had the opportunity to implement the proposed function - Boilerplate repeatedly participated in combat operations.
True, the wars were preceded by a trip to Antarctica in 1894 on a sailing ship. They wanted to test the robot in an aggressive environment, but the expedition did not reach the South Pole - the sailboat got stuck in the ice, and they had to return.
When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Archie Campion saw an opportunity to demonstrate his creation's fighting capabilities in practice. Knowing that Theodore Roosevelt was partial to new technologies, Campion persuaded him to enlist the robot in the volunteer squad.
On June 24, 1898, a mechanical soldier took part in battle for the first time, causing the enemy to flee during an attack. Boilerplate went through the entire war until the peace treaty was signed in Paris on December 10, 1898.
Since 1916 in Mexico, the robot has participated in the campaign against Pancho Villa. The story of an eyewitness to those events, Modesto Nevares, has been preserved:
“Suddenly someone shouted that an American soldier had been captured north of the city. He was led to the hotel where Pancho Villa was staying. I had the opportunity to see for myself that I had never seen a stranger soldier in my life. This American was not a man at all, since he was completely made of metal, and was taller than all the soldiers by a whole head.
He had a blanket tied around his shoulders so that from a distance he would look just like an ordinary peasant. Later I learned that the guards tried to stop this metal figure with rifle fire, but the bullets were like mosquitoes for this giant. Instead of retaliating against the attackers, this soldier simply asked to be taken to the leader."
In 1918, during World War I, Boilerplate was sent behind enemy lines on a special reconnaissance mission. He did not return from the mission, and no one saw him again.
It is clear that, most likely, the Boilerplate was just an expensive toy or even a fake, but it was he who was destined to become the first in a long series of machines that would replace the soldier on the battlefield...
World War II robots
The idea of creating a combat vehicle controlled remotely via radio arose at the very beginning of the 20th century and was realized by the French inventor Schneider, who created a prototype of a mine detonated using a radio signal.
In 1915, the German fleet included exploding boats designed by Dr. Siemens. Some of the boats were controlled by electrical wires about 20 miles long, and some were controlled by radio. The operator controlled the boats from the shore or from a seaplane. The biggest success of remote-controlled boats was the attack on the British monitor Erebus, which occurred on October 28, 1917. The monitor was severely damaged, but was able to return to port.
At the same time, the British were experimenting with the creation of remote-controlled torpedo aircraft, which were supposed to be radio-guided at an enemy ship. In 1917, in the city of Farnborough, in front of a large crowd of people, an airplane was shown that was controlled by radio. However, the control system failed and the plane crashed near a crowd of spectators. Fortunately, no one was hurt. After this, work on such technology in England died down - only to be resumed in Soviet Russia...
* * *
On August 9, 1921, the former nobleman of Bekauri received the mandate of the Council of Labor and Defense signed by Lenin:
“It is given to the inventor Vladimir Ivanovich Bekauri that he is entrusted with the urgent implementation of his, Bekauri’s, invention of a military-secret nature.”
Having secured the support of the Soviet government, Bekauri created his own institute - the “Special Technical Bureau for Military Inventions for Special Purposes” (Ostekhbyuro). It was here that the first Soviet battlefield robots were to be created.
On August 18, 1921, Bekauri issued order No. 2, according to which six departments were formed in the Ostekhburo: special, aviation, diving, explosives, separate electromechanical and experimental research.
On December 8, 1922, the Krasny Letchik plant handed over aircraft No. 4 “Handley Page” for experiments by the Ostekhbyuro - this is how the air squadron of the Ostekhbyuro began to be created.
To create remote-controlled aircraft, Bekauri needed a heavy aircraft. At first he wanted to order it in England, but the order fell through, and in November 1924 aircraft designer Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev took up this project. At this time, work was underway in Tupolev’s bureau on the heavy bomber “ANT-4” (“TB-1”). A similar project was envisaged for the TB-3 (ANT-6) aircraft.
For the TB-1 robotic aircraft, the Ostekhbyuro created the Daedalus telemechanical system. Lifting a telemechanical aircraft into the air was a difficult task, and therefore the TB-1 took off with a pilot. Several tens of kilometers from the target, the pilot jumped out with a parachute. Then the plane was controlled by radio from the “master” TB-1. When the remote-controlled bomber reached the target, a signal was sent from the leading vehicle to dive. Such aircraft were planned to be put into service as early as 1935.
Somewhat later, the Ostekhbyuro began designing a four-engine remote-controlled bomber "TB-3". The new bomber took off and cruised with a pilot, but when approaching the target, the pilot did not bail out, but transferred to an I-15 or I-16 fighter suspended from the TB-3 and returned home on it. These bombers were supposed to be put into service in 1936.
When testing the TB-3, the main problem was the lack of reliable operation of the automation. The designers tested many different designs: pneumatic, hydraulic and electromechanical. For example, in July 1934, an aircraft with an AVP-3 autopilot was tested in Monino, and in October of the same year - with an AVP-7 autopilot. But until 1937, not a single more or less acceptable control device had been developed. As a result, on January 25, 1938, the topic was closed, the Ostekhbyuro was dispersed, and the three bombers used for testing were taken away.
However, work on remote-controlled aircraft continued even after the dispersal of the Ostekhbyuro. Thus, on January 26, 1940, the Council of Labor and Defense issued Resolution No. 42 on the production of telemechanical aircraft, which put forward requirements for the creation of telemechanical aircraft with takeoff and landing "TB-3" by July 15, telemechanical aircraft with takeoff and landing "TB-3" "by October 15, command control aircraft "SB" by August 25 and "DB-3" by November 25.
In 1942, military tests of the remote-controlled Torpedo aircraft, created on the basis of the TB-3 bomber, even took place. The plane was loaded with 4 tons of “high-performance” explosives. Guidance was carried out by radio from the DB-ZF aircraft.
This plane was supposed to hit the railway junction in Vyazma, occupied by the Germans. However, when approaching the target, the antenna of the DB-ZF transmitter failed, control of the Torpedo aircraft was lost, and it fell somewhere beyond Vyazma.
The second pair of Torpedo and the SB control plane burned down at the airfield in the same year, 1942, when ammunition exploded in a nearby bomber...
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After a relatively short period of success in World War II, by the beginning of 1942, the German military aviation (Luftwaffe) had fallen on hard times. The Battle of Britain was lost, and during the failed Blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, thousands of pilots and a huge number of aircraft were lost. The immediate prospects also did not promise anything good - the production capacity of the aviation industry of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition was many times greater than the capabilities of German aviation companies, whose factories were also increasingly subjected to devastating enemy air raids.
The Luftwaffe command saw the only way out of this situation in the development of fundamentally new systems. An order from one of the leaders of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Milch, dated December 10, 1942, states:
“The unconditional requirement to ensure the qualitative superiority of the weapons of the German Air Force over the weapons of the enemy Air Force prompted me to order the start of an emergency program for the development and production of new weapon systems, codenamed “Vulcan””
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In accordance with this program, priority was given to the development of jet aircraft, as well as the FZG-76 remote-controlled aircraft.
The projectile aircraft designed by the German engineer Fritz Glossau, which went down in history under the name “V-1” (“V-1”), was developed since June 1942 by the Fisseler company, which had previously produced several quite acceptable unmanned aerial vehicles -targets for training anti-aircraft gun crews. In order to ensure the secrecy of work on the projectile aircraft, it was also called an anti-aircraft artillery target - Flakzielgerat or FZG for short. There was also an internal designation “Fi-103”, and in secret correspondence the code designation “Kirschkern” - “Cherry Pit” - was used.
The main innovation of the projectile aircraft was the pulsating jet engine, developed in the late 1930s by the German aerodynamicist Paul Schmidt based on a design proposed back in 1913 by the French designer Lorin. The industrial prototype of this engine, As109-014, was created by Argus in 1938.
In technical terms, the Fi-103 projectile was an exact copy of a naval torpedo. After the projectile was launched, it flew with the help of an autopilot along a given course and at a predetermined altitude.
The Fi-103 had a fuselage 7.8 meters long, in the nose of which a warhead with a ton of amatol was placed. Behind the warhead there was a fuel tank with gasoline. Then came two wire-braided spherical steel cylinders of compressed air to operate the rudders and other mechanisms. The tail section was occupied by a simplified autopilot, which kept the projectile on a straight course and at a given altitude. The wingspan was 530 centimeters.
Returning one day from the Fuehrer's headquarters, Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels published the following ominous statement in the Volkischer Beobachter:
“The Fuhrer and I, bending over a large-scale map of London, marked the squares with the most worthwhile goals. In London, twice as many people live in a narrow space as in Berlin. I know what this means. There have been no air raid raids in London for three and a half years. Imagine what a terrible awakening it will be!..”
At the beginning of June 1944, a report was received in London that German guided missiles had been delivered to the French coast of the English Channel. British pilots reported that a lot of enemy activity was noticed around two structures that resembled skis. On the evening of June 12, German long-range guns began shelling English territory across the English Channel, probably in order to divert the attention of the British from preparing to launch projectile aircraft. At 4 o'clock in the morning the shelling stopped. A few minutes later, a strange “plane” was seen over the observation post in Kent, making a sharp whistling sound and emitting a bright light from the tail. Eighteen minutes later the “plane” crashed to the ground with a deafening explosion at Swanscome, near Gravesend. Over the next hour, three more of these “planes” fell in Cuckfield, Bethnal Green and Platt. The explosions in Bethnal Green killed six people and injured nine. In addition, the railway bridge was destroyed.
During the war, 8070 (according to other sources - 9017) V-1 projectile aircraft were fired across England. Of this number, 7488 were spotted by the surveillance service, and 2420 (according to other sources - 2340) reached the target area. British air defense fighters destroyed 1847 V-1s, shooting them with on-board weapons or knocking them down with a slipstream. Anti-aircraft artillery destroyed 1,878 aircraft. 232 shells crashed on the barrage balloons. In general, almost 53% of all V-1 missiles fired at London were shot down, and only 32% (according to other sources - 25.9%) of the missiles broke through to the target area.
But even with this number of aircraft-shells, the Germans inflicted great damage on England. 24,491 residential buildings were destroyed, and 52,293 buildings became uninhabitable. 5,864 people were killed and 17,197 were seriously injured.
The last V-1 missile launched from French territory fell on England on September 1, 1944. Anglo-American troops, having landed in France, destroyed the installations for their launch.
* * *
In the early 1930s, the reorganization and rearmament of the Red Army began. One of the most active supporters of these transformations, designed to make the workers' and peasants' battalions the most powerful military units in the world, was the “Red Marshal” Mikhail Nikolaevich Tukhachevsky. He saw the modern army as countless armadas of light and heavy tanks, supported by long-range chemical artillery and high-altitude bomber aircraft. Looking for all sorts of inventive innovations that could change the nature of the war, giving the Red Army an obvious advantage, Tukhachevsky could not help but support the work on the creation of remote-controlled robotic tanks, which were carried out by Vladimir Bekauri's Ostekhburo, and later at the Institute of Telemechanics (full name - All-Union State Institute Telemechanics and Communications, VGITiS).
The first Soviet remote-controlled tank was the captured French Renault tank. A series of tests took place in 1929-30, but it was controlled not by radio, but by cable. However, a year later, a tank of domestic design, “MS-1” (“T-18”), was tested. It was controlled by radio and, moving at speeds of up to 4 km/h, carried out the commands “forward”, “right”, “left” and “stop”.
In the spring of 1932, the “Bridge-1” (later “River-1” and “River-2”) telecontrol equipment was equipped with the “T-26” double-turret tank. Tests of this tank were carried out in April at the Moscow chemical testing site. Based on their results, the production of four teletanks and two control tanks was ordered. The new control equipment, manufactured by Ostekhbyuro employees, made it possible to execute 16 commands.
In the summer of 1932, a special tank detachment No. 4 was formed in the Leningrad Military District, the main task of which was to study the combat capabilities of remote-controlled tanks. The tanks arrived at the detachment's location only at the end of 1932, and in January 1933, their field testing began in the Krasnoye Selo area.
In 1933, a remote-controlled tank under the symbol “TT-18” (a modification of the T-18 tank) was tested with control equipment located at the driver’s seat. This tank could also carry out 16 commands: turn, change speed, stop, start moving again, detonate a high-explosive charge, set up a smoke screen or release toxic substances. The range of the TT-18 was no more than a few hundred meters. At least seven standard tanks were converted into TT-18, but this system never entered service.
A new stage in the development of remote-controlled tanks began in 1934.
Under the code "Titan", the TT-26 teletank was developed, equipped with devices for releasing combat chemicals, as well as a removable flamethrower with a firing range of up to 35 meters. 55 cars of this series were produced. The TT-26 teletanks were controlled from a conventional T-26 tank.
On the chassis of the T-26 tank in 1938, the TT-TU tank was created - a telemechanical tank that approached enemy fortifications and dropped a demolition charge.
On the basis of the BT-7 high-speed tank, the A-7 remote-controlled tank was created in 1938-39. The teletank was armed with a Silin system machine gun and KS-60 toxic substance release devices produced by the Kompressor plant. The substance itself was placed in two tanks - it should have been enough to guarantee contamination of an area of 7,200 square meters. In addition, the teletank could put up a smoke screen 300-400 meters long. And finally, a mine containing a kilogram of TNT was installed on the tank, so that if it fell into the hands of the enemy, it would be possible to destroy this secret weapon.
The control operator was located on a BT-7 linear tank with standard weapons and could issue 17 commands to the teletank. The tank's control range on level ground reached 4 kilometers, and the continuous control time ranged from 4 to 6 hours.
Tests of the A-7 tank at the test site revealed many design flaws, ranging from numerous failures of the control system to the complete uselessness of the Silin machine gun.
Teletanks were also developed on the basis of other vehicles. Thus, it was planned to convert the T-27 wedge into a teletank. The telemechanical tank “Veter” was designed based on the amphibious tank “T-37A” and the telemechanical breakthrough tank based on the huge five-turret “T-35”.
After the abolition of the Ostekhbyuro, NII-20 took over the design of teletanks. His employees created the T-38-TT telemechanical wedge. The teletankette was armed with a DT machine gun in the turret and a KS-61-T flamethrower, and was also equipped with a chemical cylinder with a capacity of 45 liters and equipment for setting up a smoke screen. The control wedge with a crew of two had the same weapons, but with more ammunition.
The teletankette carried out the following commands: starting the engine, increasing engine speed, turning right and left, switching gears, turning on the brakes, stopping the wedge, preparing to fire a machine gun, shooting, flame throwing, preparing for an explosion, explosion, retreat from preparation. However, the range of action of the teletankette did not exceed 2500 meters. As a result, an experimental series of T-38-TT teletankettes was produced, but they were not accepted for service.
Soviet teletanks experienced their baptism of fire on February 28, 1940 in the Vyborg region during the Winter War with Finland. TT-26 teletanks were launched in front of the advancing linear tanks. However, they all got stuck in shell craters and were shot at almost point-blank range by Finnish anti-tank guns.
This sad experience forced the Soviet command to reconsider its attitude towards remote-controlled tanks, and in the end it abandoned the idea of their mass production and use.
* * *
The enemy obviously did not have such experience, and therefore during the Second World War the Germans repeatedly tried to use tanks and wedges controlled by wire and radio.
The following appeared on the fronts: the light tank “Goliath” (“B-I”) weighing 870 kilograms, the medium tank “Springer” (Sd.Kfz.304) weighing 2.4 tons, as well as “B-IV” (Sd.Kfz. 301) weighing from 4.5 to 6 tons.
The German company Borgward has been developing remote-controlled tanks since 1940. From 1942 to 1944, the company produced the B-IV tank under the name “Heavy charge carrier Sd.Kfz.301”. It was the first vehicle of its kind to be mass-produced into the Wehrmacht. The wedge served as a remotely controlled carrier of explosives or warheads. In its bow there was an explosive charge weighing half a ton, which was released by radio command. After the reset, the wedge returned to the tank from which it was controlled. The operator could transmit ten commands to the teletank over a distance of up to four kilometers. About a thousand copies of this car were produced.
Since 1942, various options for the B-IV design have been considered. In general, the Germans' use of these teletanks was not very successful. By the end of the war, Wehrmacht officers finally realized this, and the B-IV began to throw away the remote control equipment, in return placing two tankers with a recoilless rifle behind the armor - in this capacity, the B-IV could really pose a threat to the enemy’s medium and heavy tanks.
The “Light Charge Carrier Sd.Kfz.302” under the name “Goliath” has become much more widespread and famous. This small tank, just 610 millimeters tall, developed by Borgward, was equipped with two battery-powered electric motors and was controlled by radio. It carried an explosive charge weighing 90.7 kilograms. A later modification of the Goliath was converted to run on a gasoline engine and to be controlled by wire. In this form, this device went into large production in the summer of 1943. The subsequent model of the Goliath as a special vehicle, the Sd.Kfz.303, had a two-cylinder, two-stroke, air-cooled engine and was controlled by a retractable heavy field cable. This entire “toy” had dimensions of 1600x660x670 millimeters, moved at a speed of 6 to 10 km/h and weighed only 350 kilograms. The device could carry 100 kilograms of cargo; its task was to clear mines and remove debris on roads in the combat zone. Before the end of the war, according to preliminary estimates, about 5,000 units of this small teletank were manufactured. The Goliath was the main weapon in at least six sapper companies of tank forces.
These miniature machines were known quite widely to the public after they began to be referred to for propaganda purposes as the “secret weapon of the Third Reich” in the last years of the war. Here, for example, is what the Soviet press wrote about “Goliath” in 1944:
“On the Soviet-German front, the Germans used a torpedo wedge, mainly intended to fight our tanks. This self-propelled torpedo carries an explosive charge, which explodes by shorting the current at the moment of contact with the tank.
The torpedo is controlled from a remote point, which is connected to it by a wire ranging from 250 m to 1 km in length. This wire is wound on a reel located at the rear of the wedge. As the wedge moves away from the point, the wire is unwound from the reel.
While moving on the battlefield, the wedge can change direction. This is achieved by alternately switching the right and left motors powered by batteries.
Our troops quickly recognized the numerous vulnerable parts of the torpedoes and the latter were immediately subjected to massive destruction.
It was not difficult for tankers and artillerymen to shoot them from afar. When a shell hit, the wedge simply flew up into the air - it, so to speak, “self-destructed” with the help of its own explosive charge.
The wedge heel was easily disabled by an armor-piercing bullet, as well as machine-gun and rifle fire. In such cases, the bullets hit the front and side parts of the wedge and pierced its track. Sometimes the fighters simply cut the wire trailing behind the torpedo and the blind beast became completely harmless..."
And finally, there was the “Average charge carrier Sd. Kfz. 304" ("Springer"), the development of which was carried out in 1944 at the United Vehicle Plant "Neckarsulm" using parts of a tracked motorcycle. The device was designed to carry a payload of 300 kilograms. This model was supposed to be produced in 1945 in a large series, but until the end of the war only a few copies of the machine were made...
NATO Mechanized Army
The first law of robotics, invented by the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, stated that a robot should under no circumstances harm a person. Now they prefer not to remember this rule. After all, when it comes to government contracts, the potential danger of killer robots seems like something frivolous.
The Pentagon has been working on the program, called Future Combat Systems (FSC), since May 2000. According to official information,
“The challenge is to create driverless vehicles that can do everything that needs to be done on the battlefield: attack, defend and find targets.”
That is, the idea is simple to the point of disgrace: one robot detects a target, reports this to the command post, and another robot (or missile) destroys the target.
Three competing consortiums competed for the role of general contractor: Boeing, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin, which are offering their solutions for this Pentagon project with a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. According to the latest data, the winner of the competition was the Lockheed Martin Corporation.
The US military believes that the first generation of combat robots will be ready for military operations on the ground and in the air in the next 10 years, and Kendel Peace, a representative of General Dynamics, is even more optimistic:
“We believe that we can create such a system by the end of this decade.”
In other words - by 2010! One way or another, the deadline for the adoption of an army of robots is set for 2025.
“Future Combat Systems” is a whole system that includes well-known unmanned aerial vehicles (the “Predator” used in Afghanistan can be considered one of these), and autonomous tanks, and ground-based armored reconnaissance personnel carriers. All this equipment is supposed to be controlled remotely - simply from a shelter, via wireless communication or from satellites. The requirements for FSC are clear. Reusability, versatility, combat power, speed, security, compactness, maneuverability, and in some cases, the ability to choose a solution from a set of options included in the program.
Some of these vehicles are planned to be equipped with laser and microwave weapons.
There is no talk of creating robot soldiers yet. For some reason, this interesting topic is not touched upon at all in the Pentagon’s materials on FCS. There is also no mention of such a structure of the US Navy as the SPAWAR (Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command) center, which has very interesting developments in this area.
SPAWAR specialists have long been developing remote-controlled vehicles for reconnaissance and guidance, a reconnaissance “flying saucer”, network sensor systems and rapid detection and response systems, and, finally, a series of autonomous robots “ROBART”.
The latest representative of this family, ROBART III, is still in the development stage. And this, in fact, is a real robot soldier with a machine gun.
The “ancestors” of the combat robot (respectively, “ROBART – I-II”) were intended to protect military warehouses - that is, they were only capable of detecting an intruder and raising the alarm, while the prototype “ROBART III” is equipped with weapons. For now, this is a pneumatic prototype of a machine gun that shoots balls and arrows, but the robot already has an automatic guidance system; he himself finds the target and fires his ammunition at it at a speed of six shots in one and a half seconds.
However, FCS is far from the only program of the American Department of Defense. There is also the JPR (Joint Robotics Program), which the Pentagon has been implementing since September 2000. The description of this program directly states: “military robotic systems will be used everywhere in the 21st century.”
* * *
The Pentagon is not the only organization that is creating killer robots. It turns out that quite civil departments are interested in the production of mechanical monsters.
According to Reuters, scientists at the British University have created a prototype of the SlugBot robot, which is capable of tracking down and destroying living creatures. The press has already nicknamed him the “Terminator.” For now, the robot is programmed to search for slugs. He processes those caught and thus produces electricity. This is the world's first working robot, whose task is to kill and devour its victims.
SlugBot goes hunting after dark, when slugs are most active, and can destroy more than 100 mollusks in an hour. Thus, scientists have come to the aid of English gardeners and farmers, for whom slugs have been a nuisance for many centuries, destroying the plants they have grown.
“Slugs were not chosen by chance,” says Dr. Ian Kelly, creator of the first Terminator, “they are the main pests, there are a lot of them, they do not have a strong skeleton and are quite large.”
The robot, about 60 centimeters tall, finds its victim using infrared sensors. Scientists claim that SlugBot accurately identifies pest mollusks by infrared wavelength and can distinguish slugs from worms or snails.
“SlugBot” moves on four wheels and grabs shellfish with its “long arm”: it can rotate it 360 degrees and overtake the victim at a distance of 2 meters in any direction. The robot places the caught slugs in a special tray.
After a night hunt, the robot returns “home” and unloads: the slugs end up in a special tank, where fermentation occurs, as a result of which the slugs turn into electricity. The robot uses the resulting energy to charge its own batteries, after which the hunt continues.
Despite the fact that Time magazine named SlugBot one of the best inventions of 2001, the creators of the killer robot were criticized. Thus, one of the magazine’s readers in his open letter called the invention “reckless”:
“By creating flesh-eating robots, we are crossing a line that only a madman can cross.”
Gardeners and farmers, on the contrary, welcome the invention. They believe that its use will help gradually reduce the amount of harmful pesticides used on farmland. It is estimated that UK farmers spend an average of up to $30 million a year on slug control.
In three to four years, the first Terminator could be ready for industrial production. The prototype "SlugBot" costs about three thousand dollars, but the inventors say that once the robot hits the market, the price will drop.
Today it is clear that scientists at the British University will not stop at destroying slugs, and in the future we can expect the appearance of a robot that kills, say, rats. And here it’s already not far from a person...
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People can run with their eyes closed. We can choose unpredictable paths without even seeing them. And although we may teeter on the edge or fall with every step or jog, we don't.
“We have this inherent stability that keeps everything going,” says Jonathan Hurst, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Oregon State University. Hirst designs machines that walk on two legs and do so without vision sensors. People, he says, think the mechanics of walking upright are easy because they're good at it.
But primitive movement on two legs remains one of the most difficult things in robotics. This field is boiling right now. In June, 25 teams from around the world will compete for $3.5 million in prize money in the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Their goal is to build or program a prototype rescue robot that could help in a disaster. Most of the participants make androids.
Why, although bipeds are the rarest and most dubious design in nature, do many try to imitate them?
Robot makers respond that machines built like humans are best suited to navigate a world built for two legs. A humanoid robot, in theory, would be versatile enough to climb stairs and steps, step over obstacles in its path, and even drive a car. However, scientists and engineers say there is more to it.
“Why design a person? asks Milford Wolpoff, professor of paleoanthropology at Michigan State University. - We are not the fastest runners. We're not particularly stable. Natural selection works with what is already there, and our ancestors were not human.”
Our ancestors lived in trees, like modern chimpanzees. They climbed the branches and hung on them. The first hominid to walk straight on the earth - the line that separated us from the apes - lived about four million years ago.
People's bodies changed over the centuries to adapt to this new mode of transportation. The legs have lengthened. Knees and ankles have become stronger. Bones too. The pelvis arched. The spine was bent.
But this evolution also left scars.
“How many people do you know have back problems?” Volpoff asks. He suggests that humans may not be the best model for locomotion. If a rescue robot needs to carry things, why not give it four legs and two arms? Even three legs are more stable than two. What about a tail, like theropod dinosaurs?
“If you start from scratch,” says Wolpoff, “you will create a much better you.” And in fact, that's exactly what Hirst is doing, designing robotic legs and gaits inspired by the movement of birds bending their knees back, like a flamingo.
But he discovered that there were also non-mechanical advantages to building humanoid robots. When University of Michigan engineering professor Jesse Grizzle asked Hurst to make the robot more human-like by rotating the knee around, the result was immediate: the robot became more interesting to strangers.
People care more about something that looks human, Hirst says. The students are delighted. Journalists begin to write reports. “Then you apply for grants, and the funders already know something about you,” he says. “And that’s precisely why the research program will continue.” Never again will I build a car from a purely engineering perspective. Let it work practically and pragmatically in a different way. But people won’t like her very much.”
this was demonstrated. Robots that share space with humans fall into a unique category that lies between a person or animal and a thing.
Children typically begin to understand what is alive and what is not around the age of seven, says Rachel Severson, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. They know how to classify trees even if they don't move.
“But we found that after this age, when everything seems to be figuring out, they begin to attribute internal states to the robots, like emotions,” Severson says. “They think that they can think, be friends and deserve what can be called a moral approach.”
In her research, she determined that even adults exhibit this behavior. They seem to believe on some level that robots have a will. In some cases, robot creators are also guided by this.
“I can't say that this is true for everyone, but from what I know of robotics, there is a real curiosity in creating human forms and solving the technical problems associated with it,” says Severson. “There is a real curiosity around the creation of life.”
