Lockheed preps autonomous vehicles

[unhappycamper]

Lockheed preps autonomous vehicles
By Brad Peniston - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jun 14, 2010 9:28:06 EDT

A robot, as Morri Leland sees it, is more or less a remote-controlled vehicle with some ability to, say, avoid obstacles or even follow waypoints. But Lockheed Martin’s unmanned Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) cargo vehicle is far smarter than that, says Leland, an international business development director for the company.’

This half-scale prototype of the SMSS unmanned cargo vehicle has apparently not received the "not a robot" memo.

“You can tell it to go back to base, pick up its load, and come back out here when you’re ready,” Leland said after a June 14 land vehicles briefing at Eurosatory. “You can tell it to follow a route, a man, or execute an entire mission autonomously.”

An SMSS ordered to “return to base” will use its GPS and sensors to try following waypoints and known routes, and if neither of those are working out, will navigate its own path home, he said.

The six-wheeled, roughly 2.5-ton vehicle is designed to carry 1,200 pounds farther than 200 miles, a Lockheed fact sheet said.



unhappycamper comment: I can hardly wait to see the price tag on this bad boy.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. "execute. . ." Indeed.

We can kill people further, more efficiently than ever before.