Robotic ball that chases burglars

[ShagDevil]

I used to have an earlier version of one of these things - only it was pink, made of rubber, alot smaller, and attached to a paddle via an elastic string. No matter how hard I used to beat the crap out of this ball, it would ricochet back and leave welts on my forehead.
Seriously though. cool idea. Just keep it the hell away from me.

[phatcat42141]

Talk about a tool to teach the kids to respect and mind the teacher in school, bus, and even home. "I said sit down and dont move. I'm telling you I will switch the "Ball" on and then there goes your outside playtime!" After all they did "ban" true disipline now days.

[Und3ertak3r]

"Robo Ball Deathmatch 2005"

hmm.... deathmatch pc gaming meets Americas most wanted.. load these suckers with a .357 or a crossbow... and you score on stealth and the hit...

[GandalfTheGray]

Other critters you might add to your security force:

An armed robot?

http://www.nosc.mil/robots/land/robart/spie96.html (See Fig 7. Multi-barreled Gatling Gun!!)


A force field?

http://www.defense-update.com/products/l/LPIC.htm

A phaser?

http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/wea...p_contract.htm
(By the way, sometimes this link goes down. Maybe someone doesn't like them?)

A system known in polite circles as "slippery snot" (one you see it, you will know!!)

http://www.joshrubin.com/coolhunting...ty_denial.html

[|3lack|ce]

Yanno Gandalf, until I went to the link I had in mind the Navy's Phalanx close in weapons system for your first bot - aka 'R2D2', 'Sea-whiz', and 'the fartmaker' (for what it sounds like when it fires), ciws is that very same radar-guided high speed gatlin gun you mentioned. It's been around forever or so now, and it's most effective. I wonder if we put one of those puppies on wheels... At 3k rounds per minute anything bigger than an earthworm would be instantly vaporized.

Read more about CIWS here:
http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/.../wep-phal.html

[Jonesy69]

Now I am a pretty big guy at 6'6", I also consider myself pretty agile and physically able.

So what I'm siting here wondering is how a 10 pound ball rolling at somebody is going to deter anything. They said it works by pendulum action, which basically translates into "this thing will move, but not like its been launched out of a cannon". The simple deterent would be to step out of the way and detain the damned thing!

Now maybe if they had a 500 pound version that looked like a mace and rolled 50 MPH they'd be in the game...

[KuiXing-2005]

Oh man - when I read through this thread - I just kept thinking of the "PHANTASM" movies - anyone who saw those movies remember the flying spheres (I hestitate to use "flying balls") in the movies. I think they were powered by the captured souls by the "Tall Man." I wonder if me brain is up to finding out more...

Ping! Found 'em - careful there is a gorey animated pic at the bottom of the page:

http://www.phantasm.com/hpages/SphereFAQ.html

Now THAT would be a great defensive measure - you would just have to get rid of the whole undead/demonic thing.

[gothic_type]

Does anyone remember Dr Who? (It's unlikely you would unless you're from the uk). If you do, do you remember the Daleks? They couldn't get up stairs, so every time Dr Who encountered them, he'd attempt to run up a flight. One time they developed the ability to float up the stairs...

lol, this ball just reminds me so much of loads of different old sci-fi tv shows...amazing.

ac

[Und3ertak3r]

Does anyone remember Dr Who? (It's unlikely you would unless you're from the uk).

that is why my custom title is "The Doctor" and yes I live in the outer suburbs of Londinium, in the village of Queensland, Aus-bloody-tralia..

those b grade sci-fi movies were a great educater.. and dr who .. I want that bloody sonic screwdriver..

[Egaladeist]

They always show reruns of Dr. Who in Canada, and of Carnation Street, comedies, sit-coms, etc...we get alot of British programming on our specialty channels and PBS ( which also airs the BBC News )...I assume most of the U.S. within range of Canadian channels pick them up too.