Non-Kinetic Uses for Robotics in Counterinsurgency

I am currently reading Wired For War: Robotics and 21st Century Conflict by P. W. Singer, as well as following the Wired for War Symposium at CTLab, previously mentioned here, so understandably robots are very much on my mind.

Matt Armstrong of MountainRunner has an article in the symposium that discusses the military robot in the context of General Charles Krulak’s ’strategic corporal’.

“The intoxicating allure of technology risks unintended consequences in the psychological struggle for minds and wills in modern conflict. In my many conversations on the “public diplomacy” of unmanned warfare, few consider the robots, autonomous or remote controlled, in a war fought among the people. How do we build relationships with the locals in the sterility of robot-human interfaces? Will improved human-robot interfaces really overcome the understandable perception that American lives are worth more than locals?”

My question (via an on-line networking platform) was what were the possible non-kinetic applications of robotics that could contribute as effective and/or strategic aids to a counterinsurgency effort, yet not be percieved as ‘military’? Perhaps building infrastructure (I was thinking along the line of robotic street sweepers, pothole fillers, well diggers and underground pipe and cable layers).

Matt Armstrong quickly responded:

“Strategic aids” as you put it could include unmanned water and food trucks, even garbage trucks (remember SWET? “Sewage, Water, Electricity, Trash” as an effective COIN approach?). Then there’s tele-medicine, and more.”

Seeing as how 5GW, being a response to 4GW guerilla/insurgent warfare, has greater non-kinetic than kinetic utility what else could the “and more” include? How could robotics (autonomous, semi-autonomous, or remotely controlled) be deployed as part of a larger 5GW effort? What sort of scenarios might they be involved in?

Already on the table:

Street sweeping

Road repair

Well drilling

Underground pipe and cable laying

Water and food delivery trucks

Garbage trucks

Tele-medicine

Link: CTLab Virtual Symposium on Wired for War

CTLab is hosting an online/virutual symposium exploring the topics raised by P. W. Singer’s new book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century.

I’m not quite finished with the book yet, but so far it is excellent and well worth the price of admission. For any military thinker, futurist or tech junkie out there this is a great read. The symposium, starting today, already looks to be off to a great start with a great lineup of contributors.

 

Eyeborg

 

From Reuters:

“A Canadian filmmaker plans to have a mini camera installed in his prosthetic eye to make documentaries and raise awareness about surveillance in society.

Rob Spence, 36, who lost an eye in an accident as a teenager, said his so-called Project Eyeborg is to have the camera, a battery and a wireless transmitter mounted on a tiny circuit board.

“Originally the whole idea was to do a documentary about surveillance. I thought I would become a sort of super hero … fighting for justice against surveillance,” Spence said.”

This story interested me, not only because it seems like a really cool idea, but because of the book Upgrade Me: Our Amazing Journey to Human 2.0 by Brian Clegg that is currently sitting in my antilibrary.

Wired has more:

“If successful, Spence will become one of a growing number of lifecasters. From early webcam pioneer Jennifer Kaye Ringley, who created JenniCam, to Microsoft researcher Gordon Bell, to commercial lifecasting ventures Ustream.tv and Justin.tv, many people use video and internet technology to record and broadcast every moment of their waking lives. But Spence is taking lifecasting a step further, with a bionic eye camera that is actually embedded in his body.

“The eyes are like no other part of the body,” says Spence. “It’s what you look into when you fall in love with somebody and [influences] whether you trust someone or not. Now with a video camera in there, it will change how people see and perceive me.”"

and

“Even in the age of miniaturization, getting a wireless video camera into a prosthetic eye isn’t easy. The shape of the prosthetic is the biggest limitation: In Spence’s case, it’s 9-mm thick, 30-mm long and 28-mm high.

While that might seem like plenty of room in an age when digital cameras are squeezed into unimaginably slim and compact phones, it actually isn’t. The average area available inside a prosthetic eye for an imaging sensor is only about 8 square mm, explains Phil Bowen, an ocularist who is working with Spence.  Also, a digital camera has many more components than the visible lens and the sensor behind it, including the power supply and image-processing circuitry. Getting a completely self-contained camera module to fit into the tiny hollow of a prosthetic eye is a significant engineering challenge.”

The coolest thing about an idea or a project like this is the potential it reveals. Follow Rob Spence’s progress at his project site The Eyeborg Project and Blog.

Pew Study: Generational Internet Usage

Generations Online in 2009

“Contrary to the image of Generation Y as the “Net Generation,” internet users in their 20s do not dominate every aspect of online life. Generation X is the most likely group to bank, shop, and look for health information online. Boomers are just as likely as Generation Y to make travel reservations online. And even Silent Generation internet users are competitive when it comes to email (although teens might point out that this is proof that email is for old people).”

The Pew Internet and American Life Project has quite a few interesting reports. More of them can be found here.

New Toy

The Black and Decker Energy Saver Series Power Monitor

I got this last week as a late Christmas present and so far it seems pretty cool.

Insallation is allegedly very easy, and probably is for most people. The device is basically two parts. This first part is the monitor that mounts on the outside of your electric or electronic meter (though check the Black and Decker website to make sure yours is compatible). Mine was supposed to be compatible but the spinning disk on my particular meter didn’t quite line up as nicely as advertised with the sensor arm and took a bit of very frustrating adjusting before it was able to correctly take measurements. I’ll bet later versions mount the arm on an adjustable swivel to make installing easier instead of currently having to adjust the entire unit, mounting bracket and all.

The second part is also very easy. With a bit of middle school math you plug (no pun intended) your electric rates into the base unit and then you are set to go. (The instructions are fairly easy to follow on this part but be sure to read the troubleshooting sections where they hid how to re-syncronize the base with the meter monitor.)

The monitor keeps track of your energy usage in kilowatt hours and in dollars and will estimate your monthly useage (provided you give it an accurate sample). The most useful thing about the monitor is the ‘tare’ function that allows you to isolate the energy usage from a particular appliance even your air conditioner, something other power monitors are unable to do. It also has a tempurature and time display that can be handy.

Although you will probably have to put some effort into cutting your energy useage to justify the $100 price tag, a teenager or two might make it very worthwhile.

A couple of other handy reviews:

testfreaks.com

the gadgeteer (One horror story comment: here)

gadget-gurus.com