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Micro-Kill-Bots
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Not too sure of micro, but I visualised Mini-kill-bots (down to the size of a bee) in my 'Bot War novel. My reasoning was a certain size was needed to carry the fuel to go the distance, and of course it had to have a mechanism to deliver the kill, and whatever goes for "ammunition". Even if it is a virus, it has to be contained until delivery. All of this needs some size. As an aside, my bots were just a little smaller than the You-tube video, so does that rate as a SF prediction?
Yep, definitely a successful prediction.
So, to defeat these bots, we'll have to wear masks? Hopefully something more comfortable than a chicken mask :-) What would be a comfortable way to alter your face so that it wouldn't be recognized?
Hi Scout, I'm just thinking the key idea is not to appear human.
Scout, facial recognition may not be important. They might attack everyone in a given place. As an example, if you anted to break into a place, sending in the 'bots first would conveniently get rid of any opposition. As Graeme suggests, don't look human.
If we use the actual clip as a guide, they made a key point of mapping the face of the target dummy, and then planting that explosive charge on the forehead.[Assumption] Lot's of software is intolerant of variation. So break up the face, and there is "no target," to engage.
Counter to that, If I was programming this, I would be looking for multiple characteristics to determine my target like movement, heat signature, etc, but by the same token that requires additional sensors, extra weight, extra size and power needs...
All these characteristics have to balanced off to have a mini-drone that can kill.
Still wondering what's a comfortable and easy way to defeat facial recognition. Wear a beak instead of a nose? Wear elephant ears? Neither are comfortable. Must be an easier way.
Maybe glasses that distort the appearance of facial width and distance between the eyes?
The recognition merely needs the 'bots to attack anything walking on two legs. It doesn't have to recognise the face, other than in the case of the clip, to hit somewhere above the shoulders so it has to know what the head is.
Hi Ian, from the clip, they were mapping a human face. Say I'm running an army of drones and I want to kill everything that moves in a target location? Perhaps I do, especially if the drones don't cost much...
But perhaps I have a limited number, and I want them to be selective, and not waste drones on cats, dogs, etc, actual dummies (classic potential for a weapon decoy - have a row of dummies), then I want to write my code to focus on the "human essentials," for the targeting system.
Hi Graeme, Yes, they were mapping the face, but they did not have to. They merely had to identify a head, which overcomes the chicken mask. The idea was that you identify things that moves on two legs which eliminates cats and dogs. You can probably also pick on size as an added extra. Dummies would be a decoy, but only if they move properly, in which case they would be robots, so maybe yoiu want to knock them out as well?
But a robot doesn't have to keep it's brain in it's head... simple decoys could be reusable.
Graeme wrote: "But a robot doesn't have to keep it's brain in it's head... simple decoys could be reusable."Your bot does not have to go for the heat either. The problem with a robot/android that is hostile is how do you kill it? An explosive or a bullet (as in the terminator movies) is usually wrong, although an rpg should suffice. But in my novel "Jonathon Munros" my heroes simply used an em pulse to fry the brain. It doesn't have to be focused, although of course local computers and associated also get fried within a given radius.
Hi Ian, I thought of an EMP too, but what is the capacity for human portable EMP devices?
Hi Graeme, In the story, they built a portable one, but the problem was power. Two of the characters got about three robots, but then needed real assistance because their power source ran out. The final solution involved a trick (won't spoil) to get ALL the deviant robots to one spot where power was not a problem.Getting one robot with an EM pulse from a person-carrying piece of equipment is reasonably easy, assuming our soldiers are happy to carry something like a 40 kg backpack (Roman soldiers had to march up to 40 mile a day carrying significantly more) but that might be it. You can get more than one with one pulse if they are close enough together. The trick in the novel was to get them all in one place holding hands.
What about defenses against a swarm of mini-bots like in the clip?
In my novel, the best I could come up with was to get into a room and close the door. Put a grating across the windows if you have them. The one thing they can't do is fly around for a long time. An EM pulse will also down them, but will take out all the local electronics. You really don't want to have to deal with these sort of things if you can help it. I suppose you could catch some in a net, or if there weren't too many of them, try swatting them, although not so good if they have an explosive charge. In this case, a bullet would down them because the bullet is nearly as big as the 'bot.
Bullets would definitely be effective - however, they are small and fast moving, hitting them would be no simple matter. Although an automatic shotgun like an AA-12 might do the rick.
Well, if you have flying bots, why can't you have defensive bots that are faster and accurate in shooting them down?
The problem is, Scout, you don't know they are there until, well, they are attacking, and then it is a bit late to activate a counter 'bot.
Since we're just making things up, I say that the defensive bots have sensors that detect incoming bots and make preemptive strikes :-)
I've been running off the idea of what is in the video.Perhaps a really good capacity to hit a fast tennis ball and a sturdy racquet is the best defense.
Graeme wrote: "I've been running off the idea of what is in the video.Perhaps a really good capacity to hit a fast tennis ball and a sturdy racquet is the best defense."
Subject to contact fuse and explosive in bot - may get through a lot of racquets:-)
I'm not sure what the fuse mechanism is. Perhaps it has to land to fire.
Here's the defense (weapon) system for dealing with a drone swarm. REF: Defense News: https://www.defensenews.com/land/2018...Unfortunately, you won't have one, if some terrorists attack a civilian population.
We're not used to looking up when we think about attacks. Drones and bots are very scary to me. How about some device one could wear that confuses their navigation?
Scout wrote: "We're not used to looking up when we think about attacks. Drones and bots are very scary to me. How about some device one could wear that confuses their navigation?"An EM pulse will knock them to the ground, frying their electrical circuits. It will also fry your own computer, phone, electronic watch, and pacemaker, so it is not a free solution.
Scout wrote: "What's the range of this EM pulse?"Depends on the power, and whether there is any focusing. Without focusing, it falls off inverse square with distance.
from the link above. "The system can detect, identify and defeat threats through EW attack while on the move at up to 50 mph, Coburn said. It requires just a single user or operator to manage the system from within ― in this case, the cab of the truck."The nature of the EW attack is not specified, but presumably the truck keeps operating. Hence not an indiscriminate EM Pulse.
So, in theory, a discriminate EM pulse could attack specific targets without disabling useful electronics?
You then have to direct it. I am not sure how easy that is because most of the pulses have very long wave lengths. You would need a parabolic "mirror" that has a very much larger diameter than the wave length, and if that is in meters, it is not going to be easy to use. However, I suppose you could go somewhere in between - partially directed, and the spill-over being too weak to do damage.
REF: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLQUD...
Noting the reliance on facial recognition to identify the target creates an immediate opportunity to defend against this type of device by breaking up the face/skull profile.
REF: Smiffys: https://www.smiffys.com.au/chicken-ma...