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Magicians of |
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Monmouth’s robot weasel
Also developed in co-operation with the Ordnance Corps is the robot weasel, the vehicle capable of running on rough terrain and mash tundra, controlled by remote radio and equipped to transmit television pictures to its distant masters.
This
rather awesome vehicle is one of the few of its type which may be written
about without violating security regulations. It has ten “claws”
and an earth-boring attachment that the remote operator controls by push
button, while the robot’s television flashes a picture of what comes up
in the claws. The weasel has been used in taking samples of radioactive
earth in the Nevada atom-bomb tests. Military men still debate the
usefulness of television as a tactical weapon. It is not difficult,
however, for a layman to visualize Monmouth’s robot weasel as a primitive
forerunner of television-equipped robot tanks and planes which will send
back actual pictures of enemy front lines. Such robots, coupled with
radar that would let American commanders know exactly where they are operating,
would be useful intelligence aids.
SCEL also is doing advanced work in the mysterious field of infrared rays. The public may not be generally aware of it, but infrared rays, which literally “see” in the dark without being visible to the eye, once were considered as a possible rival to radar. It is a well-known physical principle that infrared rays can detect objects by the heat they give out. Since human beings, as well as tanks and planes, give out heat, it is feasible to develop instruments which will locate the presence of enemy soldiers by their body heat.
Another important activity is the development of countermeasures against any type of electronic warfare of which a potential enemy is believed capable. Military security forbids any detailed discussion of this topic.
- Page updated January 1, 2004
page created August 29, 1999
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