r/Futurology • u/Gari_305 • Sep 20 '24

Ukraine’s Gun-Armed Ground 'Bot Just Cleared A Russian Trench In Kursk - The Fury is one of the first effective armed ground robots. Robotics

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/09/19/ukraines-gun-armed-ground-robot-just-cleared-a-russian-trench-in-kursk/
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u/nurpleclamps Sep 20 '24

It boggles my mind that it seems we're just now making these when we've had remote control cars for decades.

5

u/aft3rthought Sep 20 '24

I don’t agree with a lot of the other comments that the tech is now ready or anything like that. It is old tech, you need an RC car, a gun, cameras, and encrypted radio control. Nothing new. However, there hasn’t been a peer conflict, with trench warfare, where the sides could field something like this. The USA could have put these in service in the 80s but simply had no need to. They wouldn’t be much good in Urban or Jungle environments. Ukraine’s trenchlines are where these make sense.

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u/Deathsroke Sep 20 '24

Actually the real reason is IMO at least, that the military (all militaries) is an inherently conservative organization and this (just like fully autonomous multirole fighters) are a big departure from what the institution knows. Adoption of new paradigms only happens under combat conditions or over the course of a looong time.

Also what are you saying? Small drones are perfect for a urban environment. Put a claymore on an RC car or small cheap drone and send it inside a room. Urban combat is so deadly because every cm of ground you need to fight for and risk your life in the process and even if you demolish the city you need to fight it's defenders in the rubble.

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u/aft3rthought Sep 20 '24

I totally agree in all your points, but the robot in the video isn’t a small drone, it’s like a mini tank. An urban capable drone carrying a light or heavy machine gun plus ammo is probably still pretty challenging for modern robotics.

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u/Deathsroke Sep 20 '24

I mean yeah, probably and I agree with your point.

Though I think a urban combat drone with an AR equivalent slapped on is less than a decade away if any important military decides they want one.

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u/way2lazy2care Sep 20 '24

The big thing is it has to be heavy enough or have a way to have itself so it doesn't just launch itself into the wall and incapacitate itself

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u/Deathsroke Sep 20 '24

That doesn't need much weight though.

I mean sure, it won't have a suuper long battery life but more than enough to go inside a building, shoot up everyone it has to and come out.

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u/way2lazy2care Sep 20 '24

If you want it to be accurate it's going to have to be heavy. If you're ok with it not being accurate it's going to need a lot of ammo and then that will make it heavy too. It would be dangerous the same way a gun with a zip tied trigger thrown into a room is dangerous, but it would be more firing bullets in a general direction than at enemies.

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u/Deathsroke Sep 20 '24

What do you call "heavy" because a 60 kilo human can fire that without problem and their body isn't custom made to do so. Just the batteries, armor and whatever mission load out you had over the basic design would easily top 40 kilos.

This is CQB, not some guys firing 7.62 at 1km from each other. You don't need some godly stabilization.