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Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

military.com

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Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#81

Post by rtkwe »

justinator wrote: post #77

I'm having a hard time seeing why you couldn't take something like a fat bike, and put an electrical assist motor on it, and have troops use that, mostly by pushing it. If you run out of battery, it still works 100% except now you have to push all the weight (or pedal, which could also be used to charge the battery). Gotta leave in a hurry? Use the bike, or just throw it away. Slash the tires and it's pretty much use…

Even a bike like that works only on a limited amount of terrain. Add the 100 ish pounds of weight they need to be able to carry in addition to a person and they get bogged down even worse. The ways you can pack them is also really limited because soldiers would need to be able to take everything off and carry it still in the even that it does get bogged down.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#83

Post by rtkwe »

Someone wrote: post #71
grogenaut wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? What are they going to do with it?

Sell it to a country that has the technology level needed to copy it. Russia and China likely would be interested; they might not want to do business with the Taliban directly, but might be willing to buy them through a middle man, say Pakistan. It is fairly common for countries to let other powers take a look at technology that lands in their hands (sometimes before returning it to them). See for example https://en.…

A lot of the ability of the Boston Robotics robots is in their software thought which is much easier to lockdown via encryption. The rest is the hydraulic mechanism which is not easy but is the best known part of what the BR robots do.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#86

Post by orf »

kiba wrote: post #57
JabavuAdams wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much easier than the logistics of keeping a robot operational in the field. You don't care whether the Taliban captures your flesh and blood mule, but you really don't want them capturing your world's-most-advanced robotic mule.

The Taliban are not going to have the capability to reverse engineer and produce their own copy, let along having the logistic capability of keeping it in the field.

I'm sure they could find a buyer for it that can.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#87

Post by grogenaut »

Gracana wrote: post #74
grogenaut wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walking the wonderland trail a few years ago I was remarking to my friend that in some of the most remote meadows at the top (7-8k feet) ( https://www.google.com/maps/@46.9181125,-121.7649511,731m/da... ) of the trail there were long stretches of very nice chat trails. He was saying what a pain it would be to bring the chat up and was trying to decide if it was ATVs or mules or whatever. I guessed helicopter. We aske…

I figured "chat" was gravel or something from the context, but had never heard the term before. Maybe I'm the lone idiot, but in case anyone else is confused: "Chat is a term for fragments of siliceous rock, limestone, and dolomite waste rejected in the lead-zinc milling operations that accompanied lead-zinc mining in the first half of the 20th century. [...] Although poisonous, chat can be used to improve traction o…

In general it just means small crushed gravel. It's usually white or tan. Not sure if it's always a remnant from mining or not. Does a good job on the trail though.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#88

Post by grogenaut »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #65
grogenaut wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big drawback not called out to electric is you have to power it to have it hold still. Hydraulic can just leave a valve closed which may or may not require power. Then again just have it "sit". This may not be the best tactically though in small group engagements as "sit" is movement and freeze is dead stop. I'll let people who know more about that debate it though.

> One big drawback not called out to electric is you have to power it to have it hold still. How so? There are plenty of ways to mechanically lock a joint in place.

Sure there are. They add complexity and weight and failure conditions. There's also a difference between lock and place and lock at an exact position.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#89

Post by grogenaut »

Someone wrote: post #71
grogenaut wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? What are they going to do with it?

Sell it to a country that has the technology level needed to copy it. Russia and China likely would be interested; they might not want to do business with the Taliban directly, but might be willing to buy them through a middle man, say Pakistan. It is fairly common for countries to let other powers take a look at technology that lands in their hands (sometimes before returning it to them). See for example https://en.…

Sure and it's a problem the military has been dealing with for decades. I'm going to assume they understand the calculus and some effective countermeasures.

Re: Marine Corps Shelves Futuristic Robo-Mule Due to Noise Concerns

#90

Post by darkmighty »

grogenaut wrote: post #44
Animats wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BigDog's power pack was originally a constant speed gasoline engine driving a hydraulic pump and an electrical generator. That's the noisy engine in the earlier videos. The LS3 was supposed to have a new, quieter power pack developed with a small variable-speed Diesel engine. That was subcontracted out by Boston Dynamics. This is as good as it ever got: [1] It still sounds like a dirt bike. The hydraulic system used…

One big drawback not called out to electric is you have to power it to have it hold still. Hydraulic can just leave a valve closed which may or may not require power. Then again just have it "sit". This may not be the best tactically though in small group engagements as "sit" is movement and freeze is dead stop. I'll let people who know more about that debate it though.

To complement other answers, it seems a 3-phase AC induction motor has good torque at w=0. Also, in theory it's power consumption should be 0, but of course there's the non-negligible resistance of the winding and other losses, but the EMF will still be small, so P=VI is small.
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