Using Scraps and Salvaged Parts, Libyan Rebels Turn Toys Into Robo-Warriors
By Rebecca Boyle Posted 06.15.2011 at 1:46 pm 5 Comments



Faced with arms shortages and continual bombing by NATO and the forces of Muammar Gaddafi, rebels in Libya are becoming DIY weapons manufacturers. A school in Misrata has been transformed into a makeshift factory, where toys and trucks are turning into machine gun-equipped robots.

Al Jazeera took a tour of the DIY weapons depot, where a Power Wheels toy was transformed into a robot with a machine gun. Mohammad bin Saud’s team designed the car, which can be remotely operated.

A full-sized truck can also be operated from afar, allowing the rebels to hide from snipers while aiming at their targets using a video system.

In another example, the rebels took handlebars and ball bearings from a bike, a base plate from a 4x4 truck, a tank swivel and a gun stripped from a damaged fighter plane, and turned it all into a drivable gun turret.

Battlefield robots are increasingly common among the world’s armies — there are plenty serving in Iraq, for instance — so remote tanks and machine guns are not exactly new. But the DIY aspect takes it to a new level. Some of the Libyan rebels are engineers by training, happy to lend their skills to the liberation effort. But others are simply garage tinkerers — like chief weapons engineer Rajab, a former truck driver. In the Al Jazeera video below, he explains how to salvage found munitions and forge new ones.

When even outnumbered, out-equipped military forces are designing battle robots, it’s pretty clear they represent the future of warfare.

Video: Using Scraps and Salvaged Parts, Libyan Rebels Turn Toys Into Robo-Warriors | Popular Science

Quote:

When even outnumbered, out-equipped military forces are designing battle robots, it’s pretty clear they represent the future of warfare.

Not really. They represent the "great recycling" that will occur as we have to re-use all the junk we already produced because we can't produce more. In a sense while using this new technology in these pieces "looks" cool and modern it is actually a start on the downward slope.

Good on the Libyan rebels though!

IMHO of course.

F

__________________
"Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time and to its government when it deserves it."-- Mark Twain

"Inter arma silent Musae"--when the weapons speak, the muses fall silent.

An't nanum hearm deth, doth hwaet ye willath.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished
unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. -Voltaire

Economic Left/Right: -3.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.36

Well, no. There are already people who make a living going through our trush dumped in third world countries, often at substantial personal risk to themselves. That would serve as a better case for your argument, but even that would be pretty weak. The fact thast those people are incentivised to do it does not arise from absolute shortage, but from relative and local poverty.

I think the point that automated systems of one sort or another are now commonplace and cheap, and technical knowledge sufficient to adapt them is widespreasd, is more pertinent.