Star Wars & Sc-Fi Talk

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paintgun

Senior Member
Let's extend your imagination a bit, a mech does not have to be a humanoid with articulated fingers carrying small arms as an honest imitation of a human soldier in function. That's for cheap 80's B movie.

A mech, is simply a machine, it can take any form or any function.

This is Big Dog, don't mind that awfully loud and useless piston engine, how do you propose the tracked/wheeled equivalent of this machine handle the same terrain? Or ask a wheeled machine to gallop?
[video=youtube_share;W1czBcnX1Ww]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww[/video]

or, if you really like a humanoid bipedal, here is Pettman
[video=youtube_share;mclbVTIYG8E]www.youtube.com/watch?v=mclbVTIYG8E[/video]

and this is Cheetah
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These machines are in their early phase of development, which is to mimic the movement of nature or animals as a research into an efficient form of translocation. I also remember the German flying dolphins, and some other research.
Such research is part of development for future advanced robotics for all purposes.
And those 3 videos are from the same company, the one who sponsored them is... voila, DARPA.

If you can't see the point of my earlier quote, well then... you're too deeply entrenched in your own opinion.
 
AssassinsMace

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Let me give you a cold hard dose of reality. You really don't know the difference between a mech and a robot. Not talking about robots. Those videos are robots. You're clearly not reading what I've written. I'm talking mechs from the beginning where you have these giant mechanical versions of biological organisms that mimic their movements and people climb in to operate and specifically for combat. I said early on a mech can be used for construction but not practical for combat because a lesser platform can destroy it. You can't seem to get through that whatever awesome weapons you give a mech can be used on a lesser inexpensive platform like a tank and destroy your mech. Meaning it's pointless to make a mech for combat when it can be destroyed so easily. What does a mech do in mimicking human movement defend it from a weapon that can destroy it?
 
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paintgun

Senior Member
Looks like my arguments and yours went their own ways and never met :D

I understand the position of yours, though sadly the opposite can not be said as true. Thus said, i retire from engaging the current exchange, while still expecting a good discussion with you on another tangent of this topic in the future.

(Psst, i just don't want to be seen as a nerd discussing about mech pages after pages on internet forum :p)
 
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paintgun

Senior Member
what timing, stumbled on this article on MP.net a few minutes ago

If robots are ever really going to carry the bags of U.S. soldiers and Marines, the Pentagon’s futurists think, they’re going to have to act more like pack animals. That means responding to voice commands, figuring out when it makes sense to follow a human being and when it doesn’t, and getting around uneven terrain and other obstacles. Darpa thinks it’s off to a good start.

Over the past two weeks, the Pentagon’s blue-sky researchers took an upgraded LS3 robot — a cousin of the headless BigDog and PETMAN made by Boston Dynamics — on a walk through the woods and hills of Fort Pickett, Virginia. (LS3 = “Legged Squad Support System,” get it?) It was the first test conducted on the LS3 after bolstering the autonomy functions for the $54 million project, now in its fifth year. As the video above shows, when a human instructor calls out “engine on” and “follow tight,” the robot’s engine activates, and it follows its master on exactly the path the human takes. When the human calls out “follow corridor,” the robot will “generate the path that’s most efficient for itself,” explains Army Lt. Col. Joseph Hitt, Darpa’s LS3 program manager.

Darpa figures that it’s illogical to make a soldier hand over her rucksack to a robotic beast of burden if she’s then got to be preoccupied with “joysticks and computer screens” to guide it forward. “That adds to the cognitive burden of the soldier,” Hitt explains. “We need to make sure that the robot also is smart, like a trained animal.” So the LS3 uses a laser range-finder, specialized cameras and stereo vision to keep track of its human master.

Darpa is really literal when it means that the LS3 has to operate like a mule. It needs to haul up to 400 pounds, walk 20 miles and operate for 24 hours without human intervention. The program’s been undergoing tests for years, and Darpa and Boston Dynamics have put out numerous videos showing the gangly metal beast climbing woodlands, recovering from being kicked over, and running on treadmills. The Fort Pickett tests show much of the same. Only this time, the robot is way quieter — emitting “less noise than any combustion-engine system out there that’s tactically relevant,” Hill says — and its rounded back and spindly legs allow it to climb out of the uneven terrain that troops in, say, Afghanistan encounter. The LS3 can now also put its feet on uneven surfaces like logs, whereas before it labored to avoid them.

All this is the result of major advances to the LS3′s software, particularly as it integrates with the system’s sensors. At Fort Pickett, it walked through an obstacle course of shipping containers that subbed for the narrow alleyways of urban conditions. That showed the LS3 computing a course on its own: “The robot has to decide, ‘Can I fit here 20, 30 meters from now, or do I have to turn around?’” Hitt says. (Skip to 1:40 on the video to see what the robot sees.)

So far, the system responds to 10 basic voice commands — again, like a trained animal — like “stop,” “follow tight,” or “engine off.” But “perception and platform robustness” remain challenges, Hitt concedes, like ensuring the robot can react to changes in light or weather. It can’t, for instance, look at a snow-covered hill and figure out if the snow is too deep to traverse. Nor can it avoid battlefield dangers like gunfire or bombs. “We’ll have to always continue to add additional logic,” Hitt says.

That’s what’s going to happen over the next two years. Every three months, Darpa will take the LS3 to a different set of climate conditions that U.S. troops have to encounter; first up is the arid, desert environment of the Marines’ Twentynine Palms base in California’s Mojave Desert. That’s an indicator of Darpa’s desire to hand over its first robot to a Marine company in 2014. The LS3 may not have a head, but Darpa expects it to be at least as smart as a real-life mule.



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[video=youtube;hNUeSUXOc-w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNUeSUXOc-w[/video]
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bd popeye

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
VIP Professional
Gerry Anderson creator of Thunderbirds are Go!!, Supercar * Fireball XL5 among others has passed away at the age of 83. My condolences to his family, friends and fans...

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Gerry Anderson, the British director and creator of the cult sci-fi animation series "Thunderbirds", died on Wednesday aged 83, his son said on Wednesday.

Anderson had been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease since 2010 and his health had deteriorated in the past six months, Jamie Anderson said on his personal website.

The animator also created "Joe 90" and "Stingray" but he was best known for "Thunderbirds", which used a form of marionette puppetry dubbed "Supermarionation"

The series, first shown in 1965, followed the adventures of International Rescue, a secretive organisation whose mission was to help those in peril using spacecraft and a range of high-tech vehicles operating from a Pacific Island.

"I'm very sad to announce the death of my father, 'Thunderbirds' creator, Gerry Anderson," his son said.

"He died peacefully in his sleep at midday today having suffered with mixed dementia for the past few years."

Anderson began his career studying fibrous plastering, the technique used to make mouldings, but he suffered from dermatitis and had to switch to work as a photographer.

He also briefly earned a living as an air traffic controller before setting up a film company with friends.

His first commission was a children's puppet series called "The Adventures of Twizzle".

The low-key start allowed Anderson to perfect the technique of Supermarionation.

It first involved recording the soundtrack for the voices. Then when the puppets were being filmed the electric signal from the taped dialogue was transmitted to sensors in the puppets' heads.

That meant that the marionettes' lips moved in total synchronicity with the soundtrack, which after being perfected in "Fireball XL5" and "Stingray" was ready for the launch of "Thunderbirds".

Anderson came up with the idea for "Thunderbirds" in 1963 while listening to a radio report about a revolutionary machine being transported across Germany to rescue miners trapped deep in a mine.

He developed the concept with his second wife, TV and film producer Sylvia Anderson, to whom he was married from 1960 to 1981.

Shown on the ITV network, the series was set 100 years in the future, but despite its glamorous concept, it was filmed in the drab surroundings of a trading estate in Slough to the west of London.

The plot revolved around International Rescue, manned by the Tracy family, often assisted by the glamorous Lady Penelope -- whose character was voiced by Sylvia Anderson -- and her butler, Parker.

Anderson spoke about his condition earlier this year.

He told BBC radio: "I don't think I realised at all. It was my wife Mary who began to notice that I would do something quite daft like putting the kettle in the sink and waiting for it to boil."
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X

Xigwin

New Member
Dark Horse, Wood start new 'Star Wars' comic
Matt Moore, The Associated Press, Philadelphia | Entertainment | Thu, January 10 2013, 12:43 PM

Dark%20Horse%20Star%20Wars_admi.jpg

The new Star Wars comic is displayed at Fat Jack’s Comicrypt on Wednesday in Philadelphia. Writer Brian Wood, artist Carlos D'Anda and Dark Horse Comics launch a new monthly series Wednesday that focuses on Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca, as well as droids R2-D2 and C3P0, as they seek to establish a foothold for the rebellion in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction. (AP/Matt Rourke)The new Star Wars comic is displayed at Fat Jack’s Comicrypt on Wednesday in Philadelphia. Writer Brian Wood, artist Carlos D'Anda and Dark Horse Comics launch a new monthly series Wednesday that focuses on Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca, as well as droids R2-D2 and C3P0, as they seek to establish a foothold for the rebellion in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction. (AP/Matt Rourke)

There's excitement brewing for fans of the original "Star Wars" trilogy.

Writer Brian Wood and Dark Horse Comics began a new monthly series Wednesday that focuses on Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia Organa, Han Solo and Chewbacca, along with R2-D2 and C-3P0, as they seek to establish a foothold for the rebellion in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction.

Wood, whose previous comics include the acclaimed "DMZ" and "Northlanders" at Vertigo and the ongoing "The Massive" at Dark Horse, called the new series about the classic "Star Wars" characters the only such series he could write.

"I know the original trilogy best," he explained, noting that George Lucas' creation has spawned its own universe of expanded characters, books, comics and more.

Disney has already announced plans to revive the "Star Wars" franchise after the events of "Return of the Jedi" in 2015. Milwaukie, Ore.-based Dark Horse has been publishing "Star Wars" comics for more than 20 years.

Woods called the new series - illustrated by Carlos D'Anda - a way to examine the events that transpired between the end of the first film, "Star Wars: A New Hope" and the second film, "The Empire Strikes Back," by detailing the next, furtive steps for the rebellion and the Empire's efforts to stop it from spreading.

"The basic approach is sort of how everybody, including the Empire, is kind of reeling from that battle in various different ways," Wood said. "The rebellion is in need of a home base, Darth Vader is dealing with serious disapproval from the Emperor for having failed to stop the Death Star's destruction - he's actually been demoted!"

Leia has lost her home world. Luke lost his family. Han and Chewie have seen their smuggling business hurt by their association with the rebels.

"Everyone has suffered enormous losses," Wood said.

Wood said the challenge for the series is keeping track of all the story possibilities, given the established mythology of the "Star Wars" universe and the sheer number of characters.

"It's a big cast! The droids, Ben Kenobi is there, all of the Empire, too. It's a very large cast so that's kind of a tricky thing," he said.

And most readers already know what happened to the characters, good and bad.

"It's writing the story knowing what the audience knows but what the characters don't. Obviously, Luke and Leia don't know they're related - I can't ignore that," Wood said.

"It's a very enjoyable challenge walking that line," he said.

Linky:
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If they're going to make a reboot about Starwars the first things I want to change is the Stormtroopers.

"Only Imperial stormtroopers are so precise."
―Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Yeah Right

& Han shoot first.
 
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