by DJ Neawedde | 27th September 2006
The new RedOwl “sniper detection and surveillance†robot is a remote, deployable sensor suite designed to provide early warning information, gunshot detection, intelligence, surveillance and targeting capabilities to military and government agencies.
RedOwl is a program led by Boston University with iRobot, Insight Technology and BioMimetic Systems, a Boston U spinout company. The RedOwl equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army at a rifle and trapshooting range.
The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds.
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by DJ Neawedde | 27th September 2006
The new RedOwl “sniper detection and surveillance†robot is a remote, deployable sensor suite designed to provide early warning information, gunshot detection, intelligence, surveillance and targeting capabilities to military and government agencies.
RedOwl is a program led by Boston University with iRobot, Insight Technology and BioMimetic Systems, a Boston U spinout company. The RedOwl equipped PackBot has been field-tested for the Army at a rifle and trapshooting range.
The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds.
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Looks like Short Circuit
September 28th, 2006 at 7:44 am
pretty cool
September 28th, 2006 at 7:56 am
If it works then great. I would imagine that sniper attacks are a common cause of fatalities in Iraq judging from the news and ogrish.com.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:14 am
hooray BU!
September 28th, 2006 at 8:31 am
kinda looks like johnny 5
September 28th, 2006 at 8:39 am
NO CHANCE IN HELL…. information gathering maybe ….. true sniper detection not a chance… it is too small of a package shit I had people step on me one guy took a piss right on my boot and never even realized I was there …… ya maybe he did ….. but that time wasnt training so I was about to piss my self too….
Regardless all the toys in the world cant beat a good sniper ….
September 28th, 2006 at 8:43 am
Add a gun to that … and you have a counter-sniper bot.
September 28th, 2006 at 9:08 am
Oh okay. So if I’m a sniper I need to look for the robot and take that out first. Cool. Sweet idea though.
September 28th, 2006 at 10:48 am
Heh tom, thanks for mentionning that, cos’ it actually does look like “Short Circuit”.
Johnny five is alive
September 28th, 2006 at 10:59 am
You’d need a matrix of microphones to triangulate on a sniper (I worked on something similar a long time ago.) You can’t do it from one spot.
And if that thing only weighs 5 pounds, my wife would like to borrow your scale. Maybe you meant 50 pounds… maybe… but you couldn’t even move that thing without at least 5 pounds of batteries.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Yep:
“Enter the PackBot, a 44-pound unit being developed by iRobot”
I don’t think they whittled 40 pounds off the device.
September 28th, 2006 at 11:53 am
[…] The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds.read more | digg story More: […]
September 29th, 2006 at 12:04 am
I think they mean that the sensor package is less than 5 pounds. The payload size is usually a limiting factor for robot functionality.
It’s not meant to find a camouflaged sniper looking like a bush in a jungle. It’s meant to figure out where the bullets are coming from if somebody’s pinned down behind their just-blowed-up Humvee, getting shot at.
September 29th, 2006 at 9:30 am
[…] The RedOwl robot also employs a suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds.read more | digg story […]
October 4th, 2006 at 8:21 am
What do you mean “a” robot? You do realize these things are only $150,000 each, right? The military could deploy them by the dozen. You might take out the first one, but then the one right next to it will make your position and you will go splat. And even so, the robot has still defeated the sniper, because the end result is one dead ROBOT, not one dead soldier.
And yeah, I am sure mr. Super-stealth sniper can get real close, but the instant he fires his weapon he’s done. His position is made immediately…this thing can pinpoint his position in a few milliseconds. He’ll get one shot, but thats it.
December 17th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
i always love reading new ways that america tries to squander their military budget. the Magentic Accelerator is probally the only thing with even a hint of merit (if they are able to accuratly fire & retrieve items.
Suborbital Space Transport - whats the point of getting them there in two hours, if it probally takes 24hours to decide to send them! and that aisde, theres just no need for this capability, its idiotic.
but the idea that stands out as the most usless is the sniper detector:
firstly, a sniper selects target, takes one shot, then moves position immediatly. so if the machine is deployed, whats it going to detect except the empty place here the shot was taken from, and detection is only one part, THEN you try to put accurate fire on the place the shot was taken from, which i think is safe to assume is beyond the means of the soldiers who are operating it as the sniper would be well beyond the range of their small arms, so they would need to call in a air strike…on a long vacated position. secondly, the unit needs to be deployed in expectation of a sniper being there, which is somewhat defeating the purpose since the sniper relies on ’surprise’ what unit wants to slow itself up with this tedious slow moving equipment, if supplied to every platoon in combat service, your looking at around 25,000 units, and a cost of 3,750,000,000 development costs, its also a purely defensive device. so why waste all this money…when you can just have a sniper, act in a anti-sniper role and take out the enemy sniper for no additional cost, while also being able to progect power by then using sniping on the enemy. this robot makes no sence, it wont be able to detect & destoy enemy snipers, and we already have an EFFECTIVE anti-sniper device…a sniper!
December 18th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
[…] Sniper Detecting Robot […]
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:29 am
What most of you fail to realize is that “sniper” the world over doesn’t necessarily mean someone with a ghillie suit and a Tac-50. What it generally means is a lone guerilla with an AK-47 in a window pinning down a small number of allies. That lone operative can cause sufficient casualties in a short period of time… this will allow an allied group to at least pinpoint said AK-weilder and focus fire on the correct building/window instead of just trying to suppress 3/4 of an entire neighborhood.
An AK with a flash-suppressor is far more deadly at 150 yards than a Barrett is going to be from 1000; in “Hadji’s” hands, at least..
January 22nd, 2007 at 11:40 am
Every platoon does not need a redowl. Only platoons in high sniper areas. Platoons in Balad would have nothing to do with a device like this. This would mainly see use in Fallujah and Baghdad. It could save a lot of lives. I think its a great new tool.
February 18th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
[…] The above picture is of a new sniper-detecting robot. It will be extremely useful for the bipolars and schizophrenics, now off their meds and fending off snipers (snipers everywhere!). […]
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:52 pm
[…] These are great and all, but they don’t seem to have quite the meat iRobot’s RedOwl Sniper Detecting Robot has: “suite of advanced optics including a thermal camera, 300X zoom daylight/infrared camera, infrared laser illuminators, a rangefinder, high intensity white driving light, and voice communication microphones and speakers, all in a package that weighs less than 5 pounds.” My personal favorite sniper detecting method. […]
April 26th, 2007 at 4:54 pm