Qinetiq rolls out 'third party' SDK for killer robot lines Killer robots are a bit like iPhones - tons of hype, but not that many units actually sold. Many people reckon that this is because these amazing, potentially multifunction devices' potential is not fully exploited. And that, of course, is because of the lack of a robust developer community. Armed, yet human-controlled At …
Does anyone else remember a "C-Robots" game from the late eighties where you had to programme a simulated killer robot in C before sending it into battle against other robots written by your opponents? Spent a lot of time devising strategies to create the ultimate killer robot in that.
That was of course a simulated robot though. You wouldn't want to buy an expensive bit of kit, no matter how sexy, only to blow it up with you own missile following a division by zero...
I nearly dropped my late night coffee when I read that caption for the picture of the robot - genius.
I do like the concept of programming my own personal ED-209 [equally befuddled by stairs when carrying a heavy duty payload?] but I think I'd mount it up beside red light cameras in London and get it to target cyclists and scooter riders who fly through pedestrian crossings.
I think a minigun should suffice, with an ejector setup that rotates, allowing it to make it rain hot brass over a ten foot radius, while the hot lead is aimed on the target. Maybe make it subsonic .22 calibre to reduce the noise and damage to the road.
And it would fire continously on the target for thirty seconds. For nothing more than my own entertainment.
*goes off to find a 'teach yourself C in a day' book*
Steven R
So is Qinetic providing free/discounted hardware for alpha testing? I want one with 7.62mm machine gun and grenade launcher. Oh, and sufficient ammunition to properly test my code.
How can we do development without the proper tools? BTW, is there a range where my lovely can strut it's stuff?
AC wrote: "and will people mind if I let it loose in the garden with cat recognition software installed.The vulture 'cos that's what the cats will look like."
I suspect that the ExtermaFeline-209 (EF-209) mod would be the most popular, (I'd buy one!). And we've already had mention of the next most popular - ExtermaChav-209 (EC-209) - (TV guided missiles with Burberry recognition subroutines on that one perhaps? And guns with sniffers for cheap cider and Bucky.)
I'll take one of each, but I'd also like the service pack on the EC-209 that seeks out incompetent and anti-social bar-b-q's and terminates them.
Get the price right and maybe there's a chance that the UK taxpayer will get back some of the money wasted on the Qinetiq sell-out, sorry "sell off" ... Freudian slip there!
Ah well, back to work...
I like cats! I have always been partial to pussies. But if this is available with Sound Oriented Dog Destruction Over Gardens (SODDOG) I will buy it . Where I live I have the constant barking of dogs that have been left alone all day while the owner is out, then when the apparently dog loving owner comes home the idiot asks it to `speak´. That is, the owner asks the dog to speak not the other way round, I think.
Could run the same type of software on a black helicopter, that would be a laugh!
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