back to article Caterpillar plans 600 tonne godzilla-lorry robots

Those who follow the robot news will be pleased to hear that recent US military-funded driverless car contest technologies are finding their first real world applications. To be precise, American droid chiefs plan soon to unleash titanic, 600-tonne automated trucks capable of squashing flimsy human vehicles like bugs. The …

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  1. Stephen Gray

    @ AC Apart from being big, the CAT just doesn't seem that impressive

    So something that weighs roughly 5 times as much as your puny M1 and yet is only 3MPH slower isn't that impressive eh? OK each to their own but to me thats fucking impressive!

  2. Farai
    Go

    @ Dave Aitken

    "don't go for the tyres

    By Dave Aitken

    Posted Wednesday 10th September 2008 16:57 GMT

    or any other mecha-bits of these mechadroid would-be overlords. We need to zap their frikkin brains out with 10kiloTesla per second EMP pulses. Build coils, lots of BIG coils!! and magnets!! gather many many large magnetics. We must prepare to hit these monsters where we can hurt them"

    There just HAPPENS to be a magnet big enough - coinkidink? I THINK NOT!!! :D :D

    Switzerland/France Border - The Last Frontier!!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There are bigger...

    The Leibherr T282, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebherr_T_282B, is a fraction bigger and then there is the soon to be released Terex MT6300 which is even bigger. The problem with these things is that the tyres are the weak point. Turn the steering wheel too much when either stationary or traveling at low speed and they could burst into flames. Replacement tyres are over AUD 100k each, if you can get them. Due to this , they would make a useless Urban Assault Vehicle. Also running over things is also no good for the tyres.

    I've driven a smaller version and it's damn boring. Pay is around AUD120K a year for 8 days on, 6 days off, 12 hour shifts, out the back of beyond in northern Australia where it gets to 50 degrees Centigrade during summer. As to the concept of whacking guns etc on it, you would need to add about 100t of steel plate to protect it. Probably 1 - 2 rifle shots could stop it.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Won't happen in the near future...

    Apparently Komastu, I think it was Komatsu - could be wrong, was testing something similar on a mine in South America. Think went feral and crushed the canteen. Also mine sites are very dynamic places. Vehicles are constantly moving around in irregular patterns, even the terrain moves on a regular basis - one minute there's a pit wall there, next minute, and 40t of explosives later, there's now a pile of rubble and no wall......

  5. Stuart Gepp
    Coat

    @AC @Stephen Gray

    "The M1 Abrams tank will do 45MPH (60MPW with the governor removed "

    MPW = miles per week?

  6. Bounty
    Gates Horns

    v.s. a tank

    Since it appears to be damn big, you can probably put a longer range gun on it than an regular tank, not to mention fancy radar and rockets just in case. Combine it with an Eye-Of-Sauron tower, and it won't need to be agile etc. RPG... ha, it will have it's own air defense system. It will kill you and siege your town with it's big gun from miles away. I'll bet you can put a helicopter pad on it.... ohhhhh land based Aircraft Carrier with AI. ker plow! BAM! dat dat dat phew phew

    This makes the original terminator look terribly weak. (it was crushed to death, I'm guessing this thing has plenty of crushing power) Is that the ROTM icon?

  7. B.
    Unhappy

    Tires are the weakest link here . . .

    Tires are the weakest link as noted previously. Too soft and they wear too easily and too hard and the haul truck shakes itself apart over time. You could protect the tires to an extent from RPG's with armored skirts, but mines will still get through. Here in Arizona all the "normal" sized haul trucks wear industrial sized "snow chains" to reduce wear in the copper mines (They are not really snow chains but you get what I mean). The real weakness with the tires however is availability There is a global shortage of large construction and mining equipment rubber tires. The linked article is a few years old but covers the topic well:

    http://www.equipmentworldmagazine.com/apps/news/articleeqw.asp?id=47127

    It is so bad that new equipment has been delivered from factories on wooden blocks held together in the shape of wheels by metal bands. This is the bare minimum to load and unload the equipment for shipment and It is up to the dealer to source tires for the customer (This actually makes sense in many cases because the customers individual needs determine what kind of tires are best needed). The reasons for the shortage (which is easing up for various portions of the market) are many, but like steel, concrete and high rise cranes, its mostly the fantastic construction booms in China and the Persian Gulf.

    Any way, my two cents (its the tires that will prevent our haul truck overlords from conquering everything).

  8. Tim99 Silver badge

    @Maliciously Crafted Packet

    Here in Oz, where we buy a lot of these for the iron ore mines in the North West, the preferred driver is a woman.

    Women appear to treat the toys better, and as a result, it is reckoned that a typical years equipment maintenance costs up to $100,000 less than if a bloke was driving them...

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