My God... its the Start of a Freaking invasion.

:eek: Run to the Hills before its too late :eek:

Someone please hold me I am scared....because it now looks like  we have given the little F*ckers a mind of their own.

.

Robotic traffic cones swarm onto highways
 
19:00 28 April 04

Herds of robotic traffic cones could soon be swarming onto a highway, closing down lanes and slowing the traffic.

The new road markers have been developed by Shane Farritor, a roboticist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in a bid to help reduce the $100 billion per year that the Department of Transportation estimates is lost to the US economy through accidents and delays caused by highway lane closures.

The self-propelled markers take the form of robotic three-wheeled bases for the brightly coloured barrels that are set out to demarcate road repair zones. Farritor says they can open and close traffic lanes faster and more safely than humans.

The markers are delivered to the roadside by a specially equipped truck, from which an operator controls their deployment using a laptop computer. Each fleet of robots is made up of a lead robot or "shepherd", which is equipped with a Global Positioning System satellite navigation receiver, plus a number of less expensive "dumb" units.

The laptop screen displays an image of the road, captured by a camera mounted on top of the truck. Using software developed by Farritor\'s team, the operator marks on the screen where the barrels should be placed.


Dead reckoning


From this the software calculates the GPS coordinates of the point where the shepherd should be placed, and this is sent to the shepherd via a radio link. The shepherd takes up its position, and also tells the other markers, by radio, where to go. They then use dead reckoning - counting how many times their wheels turn, for instance - to work out their position.

Each robotic base has two electric motors, powered by a 12-volt lead-acid battery, which drive two 20-centimetre-diameter wheels. This allows the robot bases to turn on the spot, and travel at up to 1.3 metres per second - about walking pace.

The shepherd checks its "sheep" are in the right place using a laser-based radar (or "lidar") system to correct any positional errors. The lidar also has a safety role. If a marker is detected consistently straying out of position, the shepherd moves it out of harm\'s way and shuts it down.

On a test track, Farritor and his team used a swarm of six markers to form wedge-shaped lane barriers. He says they were able to achieve an accuracy close to that of humans.

link

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994932

sounds exciting.

/me wonders if you can blutooth hi-jack them via laptop to do your bidding.

muhahahahahahaha

What a friggin waste of money.

Now, road construction is going to need an IT department.  Doesn\'t it take long enough for them to finish repairing the roads?

Can\'t wait to start paying for this useless shit with my tax money.  Yay.

This is a stupid idea. An expensive answer to a problem that doesn\'t exist.

-Dan

I can\'t wait to start war driving

I\'m going to speak for my future University, and say that we\'re sorry.

Seriously...why do we even bother making such stupid crap :-P

See Yuz.