Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Ball Prototype

blog.gearbox.me

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–24 of 24 posts

Re: New Ball Prototype

#21

Post by die_sekte »

cma wrote: post #17
run4yourlives wrote: post #2

Cool... but here's how my evil military trained mind works. 1. "Ball" has core of C4, surrounded by wire, etc. (i.e. it's a grenade with a bigger bang) 2. Add increased range. 3. Add ability to "bounce" (for stairs, etc) 4. Add firing mechanism. You now have a movable, controllable grenade. Ideal use: Room clearance. Turn ball on, roll into target room, bounce to waist height, activate. You could easily modify this w…

If the weapons are truly smart, who has any use for an omni-directional blast like a grenade? Keeping with the ball form, it is more likely it would hop and shoot tiny bullets into the forehead of everyone in the room; it could use the same exact tech that cameras now use to auto-focus on faces (until everyone started wearing decoy faces, ala numerous examples in the animal kingdom). One "Little Boy"'s tonnage worth…

But how do you integrate guns into a ball?

Re: New Ball Prototype

#22

Post by evilduck »

sdurkin wrote: post #3
run4yourlives wrote: post #2

Cool... but here's how my evil military trained mind works. 1. "Ball" has core of C4, surrounded by wire, etc. (i.e. it's a grenade with a bigger bang) 2. Add increased range. 3. Add ability to "bounce" (for stairs, etc) 4. Add firing mechanism. You now have a movable, controllable grenade. Ideal use: Room clearance. Turn ball on, roll into target room, bounce to waist height, activate. You could easily modify this w…

Add acoustic sensors to triangulate enemy positions, coordinate with aerial surveillance, add ability for aerial drop to be deployed across battlefield, add control moment gyros to allow it traverse difficult terrain. You could have them roll back to a base point for self-charging. To make them airborne you could embed the standard model in a quad-rotor "collar" and use the rolling mechanism for avionics and control.…

http://diydrones.com/

I've seen the Arduino drone guys report they've been able to land within 6m of their target. Not perfect, but considering the whole shebang is built by hobbyists for a couple hundred dollars, I'll excuse them.

Re: New Ball Prototype

#24

Post by gearboxian »

todayiamme wrote: post #20

Wow. If any of the guys who designed it are around; if it's possible can you please explain how it works? Do you have a plastic sphere with 2 racks inscribed on it inside with a central assembly that has the motors and shifts the COG? Or is it something more beautiful than that?

It's really rather simple. We'll be posting more info soon! Sign up for our news at gearbox.me (I swear I don't spam).

~Ian

Post reply on HN