Meminimalkan Salah Tembak dengan GPS

Modular Advance Armed Robotic Systems (MAARS)-wired.com

MEMASUKI abad ke-21, teknologi tingkat tinggi berkembang di berbagai bidang kehidupan. Mulai industri, transportasi, hingga pertahanan. Sistem persenjataan juga mulai dibangun dengan teknologi robot. Pada 5 Juni lalu, Qinetiq -pabrikan robot asal Inggris- melepas produk peranti pertahanan terbarunya, Modular Advance Armed Robotic Systems (MAARS).

MAARS merupakan robot perang yang berbentuk mirip tank. Namun, ukurannya lebih kecil dan tanpa penumpang. Robot itu dilengkapi dengan berbagai fitur. Ia mampu dikoneksikan dengan berbagai perangkat tambahan sehingga memungkinkannya untuk digunakan dalam tiga modus penyerangan: tidak mematikan, semi mematikan, dan sangat mematikan.

Untuk modus tidak mematikan, misalnya, sebagai alat untuk membubarkan kerumunan massa. Robot bisa digunakan mentransmisikan suara penonton melalui loudspeaker. Juga, menembakkan sinar laser untuk menakut-nakuti massa.

Modus semi mematikan digunakan untuk sekadar melumpuhkan sasaran. Contohnya, menembakkan peluru karet, gas air mata, atau asap.

Sebagai senjata pembunuh, MAARS tak kalah ampuh. MAARS mampu melontarkan granat berdaya ledak tinggi dengan kaliber 40 mm. Dengan ekstensi senapan mesin M240B, robot tersebut bisa menembakkan peluru berkaliber 7,62 mm.

Robot tersebut dibekali kemampuan kontrol digital yang mudah dipelajari. MAARS masih mampu merespons perintah operator. Sekalipun, jaraknya terpisah lebih dari 1 kilometer. Kemampuan itu menjamin keamanan operator jika robot beroperasi di tempat-tempat dengan level bahaya tinggi.

MAARS didesain sedemikian rupa agar pergerakannya lebih lincah dan gesit. Ia mampu melewati berbagai macam permukaan dataran, termasuk tangga. Permasalahan yang muncul dalam setiap robot perang adalah risiko salah sasaran tembak atau kemungkinan menembak rekan sendiri. Namun, MAARS dilengkapi software yang mampu meminimalkan risiko tersebut. Juga, ada GPS yang memungkinkan komandan pasukan mengetahui posisi robot. Dengan demikian, robot pun aman dari bahaya salah tembak oleh pasukan sendiri.

MAARS kali pertama diperkenalkan oleh Qinetiq pada bulan Oktober 2007. (rum/bs)

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Neighborhood watching with the Swinglet CAM high resolution flying camera (Video)

With the help of the Swinglet CAM you can create your very own local aerial map a la Google Maps, or monitor wildlife distribution in a given area, or maybe just get a feel for what's going on in the neighborhood. The small, unmanned aerial vehicle can take off and land on its own and its integrated camera will snap high resolution images along a predetermined flightpath or as directed by remote control.

Swiss sensor manufacturer senseFly sees the Swinglet CAM high resolution aerial photography drone being useful for such things as traffic monitoring, security applications, mapping, crop monitoring and wildlife watching. It comes packed in a suitably-sized case, has a wingspan of 80cm (31.4 inches) and weighs 500g (17.6 ounces). Its Li-polymer battery will power the UAV for 30 minutes which is said to give it an operational range of up to 20km (12.4 miles) and a top speed of 30-50kph (up to 30mph).

Once unpacked from the case, the onboard brushless electric motor is activated with a few shakes of the device. The drone can be programmed to follow a pre-determined flight path based on up to 20 GPS coordinates, but also comes with a remote control. So long as the device stays within range (up to 2km/1.2 miles), it is also possible to alter a pre-programmed flight plan while it's in the air, but there's no live photo feed so operators will have to wait for it to land before being able to get at the images.

As for the images, they're automatically snapped with an integrated 12 megapixel camera. The Swinglet CAM package also contains a radio modem, battery and charger. Operators will need to load the included "e-mo-tion" software onto a suitable notebook, but there's also a version which includes a semi-rugged notebook ground station.

Pricing information is available on request from senseFly but we wouldn't expect the Swinglet CAM UAV to be available at the cheaper end of the scale.

The company has produced a video to show what its product is capable of:

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GPS enabled quadcopter drone put to use, FAA is cautious

MD4-1000 is an aweseome GPS enabled quadcopter that can be used for all sorts of surveillance. The device is proudly built by Germans, by a company called MicroDrones Gmbh, and is better described if we called it an AUMAV (Autonomous Unmanned Micro Aerial Vehicle). It has some amazing specs – such as the ability to carry a payload of up to 5lbs, travel at about 15m/s and climb at 7.5m/s. Obviously it has for electric rotors – each of which generates 250W of power and can last up to 70 minutes.

It has a variety of sensors which include barometer, hygrometer, accelerometers, gyroscopes, a magnetometer, and a thermometer. It constantly sends all of this data to its base in real time. They are actually more advanced than this. They can actually fly themselves, collect lots of data and video footage or just photos using a GPS Waypoint navigation system. Completely autonomous.

News Corp has one of these and even setup its own page to show off the videos captured. Most recently it was sent to cover the floods in Mississippi and Alabama. However not everyone is allowed to fly drones. It is used heavily by the military abroad, and even within U.S. borders by a few police departments. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) these unmanned aircraft can be used by hobbyists as long as they don’t go over 400 feet. Under no circumstance they can be used for compensation or hire. For a private party to fly a quadcopter such as this it has to receive an airworthiness certificate which requires lots of paperwork.

The News Corp’s MicroDrone MD4-1000 did fly for commercial purposes and apparently FAA is investigating to figure if they need to take any legal action against them.

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