Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Robotic Sentry Gun From USMechatronics
Amateur roboticists (and gunmakers) Aaron and Eric Rasmussen built an autonomous sentry gun as a summer project. Aaron wrote custom software to acquire and track human targets using images recieved from an attached USB webcam. The brothers have incorporated as USMechatronics to begin building sentry guns based on the technology.
(From Sentry Gun prototype)
The device was built with hobby servos and a Mini SSCII servo controller; the gun is an Airsoft replica of an FN P90 that shoots .2 gram 6mm BB's.
(From Sentry Gun acquires a target)
I was sure it would be easy to find early references to this kind of device in science fiction, but I'm stumped. In their webpage, the sentry gun creators credited movies like Congo (from the 1980 Michael Crichton novel) and various video games. In Crichton's novel, the sentry guns used to protect the camp perimeter against fierce gorillas appear to be laser guided by humans who pick out the targets.
He noticed that the guns had an unfamiliar shape - they were somehow too slender, too insubstantial - and that the black cables ran from the guns to squat, snub-nosed mechanisms mounted on short tripods at intervals around the camp."That's a LATRAP. For laser-tracking projectile," she whispered. "The LATRAP system consists of multiple LGSDs attached to sequential RFSDs."
She told him that the sentries held guns which were actually laser-guided sight devices, linked to rapid firing sensor devices on tripods. "They lock onto the target," she said, "and do the actual shooting once the target is identified."
Update 10-Oct-2006: Be sure to take a look at the recent South Korean robotic sentry gun to be put into use next year.
Read more at The Sentry Gun; thanks to wererogue for the tip on this story.
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 12/6/2005)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 51 )
Related News Stories - (" Weapon ")
Worm Disrupts Physics Simulations Undetected For A Decade
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.' - Philip K. Dick, 1965.
Moscow Attacked By Hundreds Of Drones
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...' - Hal K. Wells, 1942.
China's Handheld Electromagnetic Gun
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...' - Richard Morgan, 2003.
Is The Seattle Ultrasonics C-200 A Heinlein Vibroblade?
'It ain't a vibroblade. It's steel. Messy.' - Robert Heinlein, 1940.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Meta's Horizon Studio's Unique Avatars From Text Prompts
'Looks like she has bought the Avatar Construction Set and put together her own...'
VaMEx Biomimetic Mars Robot Inspired By Skink
'Across the ground something small and metallic came, flashing in the dull sunlight of midday.'
NEO Brain Computer Interface (BCI)
'The remains of the lace took on the rough shape of a brain...'
Did Frank Herbert Predict E-Ink Displays?
'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Mooncrete' Lunar Regolith Concrete (LRC)
'And here they began to build...'
China's 'Magpie Drone' Ornithopter
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
MAI-Voice-2 Microsoft Text-To-Speech
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris
Preventing annoying space debris build-up.
Prufrock-MB2 Ready In Nashville
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
DIY Robotic Content Farming
'The chief wheeled to the master machine and pressed a button.'
Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
The Amazing Lightfoot Electric Scooter With Solar Assist
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
Fully Electric, Fully Automated Vegetable‑growing Agribots
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
Vero Robotic Dog With Vacuum Cleaner Feet
'Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted.'
