The various branches of the United States Department of Defense have all started to make large pushes into developing unique capabilities in rapid prototyping capabilities. In entry, Wise Welding Warriors, I noted how rapid-prototyping was being used to drastically reduce the turn around time between war-fighters finding critical problems in their ability to operate effectively and developing material solutions for that problem. The logistical benefits of being able to build and repair components closer to the front-line are already impressive and will only become more useful as the capabilities of the various technologies mature. Currently relatively simple mechanical solutions can be created by Rapid Equipping Force's ELM facilities, the ability to integrate electronic components into design solutions will undoubtedly serve as capability multiplier.
Open source electronics platforms including the Arduino and Rasberry Pi have taken the maker community by storm allowing amateur inventors to create technologies ranging from automatic plant watering systems, to pens that work in 3-D, to prosthetic prototypes, and semi-autonomous vehicles. The consistent characteristics of these platforms, working in tandem with their opensource nature allows for creative talents to avoid reinventing the wheel, but instead refining a technology for a given need. The Lego Mindstorms platorm has also unleashed unimaginable levels of creativity from its user base, by being both open ended in use and reliable. This kind of open source creativity/capability added to ELM style operations could allow engineers anywhere in the world to develop advanced solutions for conflict regions around the world.
Within the realm of robotics technologies creators could know that they would have access to a micro-controller and assorted components that from the get go would be capable of being formed into traditional small scale land based robots or quadcopters. As efforts were added to the platforms engineers might develop additional remote sensing capabilities or robots intended to aid local farmers in optimizing water usage for irrigation, aiding in good will missions to counter insurgent activities.
The hardware utilized by military personal would ideally be as similar in design as possible to the platforms available to the public, with key exceptions in the ability for components to communicate on military channels, which for obvious reasons should not be put out for general access, unlike many drone transmissions in Afghanistan.
DARPA has already begun work on developing open platforms for organizations to have a common base package for building a product around, the ADAPT sensor system is serving as the flagship technology. The sensor package has already been used as a ground sensor and the control module for a quad-copter.
Open source electronics platforms including the Arduino and Rasberry Pi have taken the maker community by storm allowing amateur inventors to create technologies ranging from automatic plant watering systems, to pens that work in 3-D, to prosthetic prototypes, and semi-autonomous vehicles. The consistent characteristics of these platforms, working in tandem with their opensource nature allows for creative talents to avoid reinventing the wheel, but instead refining a technology for a given need. The Lego Mindstorms platorm has also unleashed unimaginable levels of creativity from its user base, by being both open ended in use and reliable. This kind of open source creativity/capability added to ELM style operations could allow engineers anywhere in the world to develop advanced solutions for conflict regions around the world.
Within the realm of robotics technologies creators could know that they would have access to a micro-controller and assorted components that from the get go would be capable of being formed into traditional small scale land based robots or quadcopters. As efforts were added to the platforms engineers might develop additional remote sensing capabilities or robots intended to aid local farmers in optimizing water usage for irrigation, aiding in good will missions to counter insurgent activities.
A set database of standardized components as well as a shared database of tips and tricks would mirror current open source civilian projects. This similarity would be extremely intentional, ideally the components used would also share traits with products already available to civilians. For sake of security concerns there would be some rather significant differences between the platforms used by the Department of Defense and its allies and more traditional open source ecosystems. The development community would need to be multi-tiered with increasing levels of security needed to access more sensitive aspects of the community portal, extremely general community work would work through a civilian accessible web host, while moderated the platform would most likely benefit from minimizing any heavy handed oversight by military command (voiding extreme scenarios). At a higher tier, only recognized academic groups, contracting firms, and military personal would have access, sharing would be less immediate but still reasonably open. The highest tiers would likely only need to concern a vetted group of developers who would be responsible for communication protocols and the source code of the devices. This tiered system of development would work to prevent potential hazards highlighted in the Armed Forces Journal article "Print when ready, Gridley", where the author voiced concerns of design databases being hacked and mobile factories are transformed into a digital fifth column.
DARPA has already begun work on developing open platforms for organizations to have a common base package for building a product around, the ADAPT sensor system is serving as the flagship technology. The sensor package has already been used as a ground sensor and the control module for a quad-copter.
No comments:
Post a Comment