NationStates Jolt Archive

In keeping with the Godulan method of robotics design and manufacture, the Dominion has finally completed all the necessary research to craft self-aware and self-sufficient analogs to a variety of organic creatures. Also, as a result of our extensive research on recreating organic creatures in mechanical form, we have managed to generate several unique mech-forms that all perform a unique task.

It is with the greatest anticipation that we introduce the following mech-forms for commercial production:

SWARMS

Fly-On-The-Wall Dedicated Surveillance Swarm

Cost: $10 Million Per Unit
Number per Unit: 50,000 individuals
Individual Size: 2.0cm, 50g
Dispersal Area: 25 square miles
Dispersal Time: 1 Day
Lasting Time: Indefinite (Lives on Weeds, can recharge on power wires)

The Dedicated Surveillance Swarm is exactly that: a spy swarm. Each fly maintains a direct link to a central mainframe (free with purchase!) which processes and prioritizes incoming feeds based on content and keywords that can be programmed in at the client's leisure. Whenever a keyword is uttered by anybody within audio range of a fly, that fly will immediately focus on the person who said the keyword and commence audio-visual analysis. The fly relays the information, as it is collected, to the central mainframe, where a trained "Spymaster" (Somebody trained to watch the feeds... you really only need the instruction booklet to be trained) watches the information and decides whether the gathered information merits further investigation or dismissal.

Release of the swarm is simple, one simply sets the area to be covered and lets them go. They are non-intrusive, and as such are hardly noticeable except by one who is specifically looking for them, which should be a sign of non-benevolent intentions in its own right.


Killer-Bee Dedicated Irritant Swarm

Cost: $40 million per unit
Unit Size: 60,000 individuals
Individual Size: 4cm, 110g
Dispersal Area: Cone, 4 miles long, 2 miles wide at widest point
Dispersal Time: Minutes
Lasting Time: 5 hours before recharge required

A non-gas related irritant plague, the "Killer-Bee" swarm has the potential to easily turn the tide of battle in the user's favor. These nasty little bastards are relatively similar to the "Flies on the Wall" mentioned above, except they do not have as much of a complex information relay (as they do not send video or audio information), and are equipped with a wickedly barbed stinger. While the stinger itself does not inflict much damage by itself, nor does it inject any kind of venom, one stinger can be a major distraction, and multiple stingers directed on a single enemy will be quite painful, and also shatter troop formations with ease.

Each individual is programmed to hunt down any human it encounters and commence its stinging subroutine, in which is seeks out any exposed flesh and attacks. They are well structured, so merely swatting at it will not cause any damage, though a well placed boot will. The bees will ignore any human wearing a particular beacon attuned to that swarm (free with purchase!), however, anyone wearing a beacon for one swarm that is caught in another is subject to the bees' menace. Oh, and unless a tank is completely shut out from the outside world, heavy armor is ineffective at stopping their onslaught.

Release of the swarm requires one to indicate the dispersal direction, then one can simply set them loose.

Edited: More Swarms and other Sets incoming later

SWARMS(cont.)

"Ant Workforce" Dedicated Construction Swarm

Cost: $120 million per unit (It more than pays for itself after full self-propagation)
Number Per Unit: 1000 individuals base, self-propagating protocols maintain numbers upwards of 20,000
Size of Individual: .5m length, 200kg (Largest recorded at 10m, 2.5metric tons)
Dispersal Area: Construction Site
Dispersal Time: Minutes
Lasting Time: Indefinite, feeds on lumber (but only dead lumber)

The Ants are our greatest creation, especially when it comes to crafting a dedicated workforce of drones capable of erecting a building, that normally takes many years to build, within a matter of months or even weeks. One simply places the necessary raw materials at a construction site, downloads the construction blueprints into the central mainframe of the swarm, and lets them go.

If more raw materials than necessary are placed, the ants will build a secondary individual built specifically for a particular task, such as welding, bolting, even larger models for heavy lifting. The ants are waterproof and very heavy, so they excel in building underwater structures as easily as they build land-based structures.

When the construction project is completed, all of the individuals return to their "Hive" and await further instructions. They thrive off of lumber, fruit, and water, and as such do not require recharge unless heavily pressed.

The AI matrix on the individual ant is one of the most complex of the series, falling short only of the Cougar Anti-Vehicular, described later. It is capable of understanding simple orders, such as "Go There" "Recover" (repair itself) and so on. It is also capable of understanding when a work environment has become hostile (programmed to respond to gunfire and other battle sounds), and will attempt to flee as first priority. If cornered, an ant will fight with whatever means may be at its disposal.


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DEDICATED MILITARY

"Cougar" Anti-Vehicular Combat Droid

Cost: $25million
Unit Size: Single (25% discount if bought in bulk orders of 20 or more!)
Size of Individual: 4 meters at the shoulder, 12 meters long. 6 metric tons
Top Running Speed: 70 miles per hour average sprint. Jumps at approximately 90 miles per hour.
Sensory Apparatus: Multi-Phase Radar Array, Matter sensitive Radar, Visual/NightVision/Infrared sensory apparatus, Auditory Receptors capable of discerning human heartbeats
Armor: Carbonide Steel-Ceramic composite alloy. Very light, very tough
Musculature: Bio-tech muscle filament tissue
Armament: Flamethrower, Claws, Teeth, anti-tank rockets (10), Godulan Assault Minigun, self destruct device.
Training Time: 4 weeks
Lasting Time: 2 weeks before recharge required, can be extended if Feed Protocol is introduced (Turns Cougar into Anti-Personnel, Requires specialized code to emplace as the enemy nation will likely be outraged at the enabling of the protocol)

The Cougar is a very dangerous, yet also very loyal addition to an aspiring nation's military power. The fundamental concept is similar to that of an attack dog, in that the individual comes to the client with an essentially blank slate, spends time training in various methods with the client, and learns in that manner how to discern friend from foe. It then understands who to attack in full engagement.

The Cougar's main purpose is to disable enemy armor whenever it can. It does this primarily by disabling the armored unit's mobility, then disables whatever main weapons the armored unit may have. It then attacks the nearest undamaged armored unit and keeps on until either it is disabled, or it runs out of targets. If and when undamaged armored targets are not within range of the Cougar, it then shifts into an anti-personnel mode and jumps in with tooth and claw. If damaged, it returns to home base and awaits repairs. If disabled, it detonates whatever anti-tank rockets it may still have in its body, and if no rockets are left, it overloads its energy core. In both cases the Cougar explodes quite spectacularly.

The AI governing the Cougar is top of the line, and is capable of understanding all but the most complex of orders. It imprints itself onto a particular group of humans who can give it such orders, and if those humans should die or be unable to give such orders, a new training sequence must occur in order to re-acclimate the Cougar to its new "Masters".

As of right now, the Cougar is currently in use as Governate Bodyguards, in that they can be programmed to detect explosive devices within close proximity and react if a gun is pulled, along with the ability to chase down anyone who is deemed suspect. They work quite well with Dominion Guard.

They also make great gargoyles.


"Falcon" Dedicated Anti-Personnel Combat Droid

Cost: $2 million
Unit Size: 1 (25% discount in bulk orders of 40 or more!)
Size of Individual: 5 meter wingspan, 35kg
Speed: 35mph flying, 180mph divebomb
Sensory: AudioVisual Receptors, Nightvision, Infrared
Armor: Ceramic/Plastic composite material. VERY light
Armament: Claws, Beak, Self-Destruct Device
Musculature: Biotech Muscle Filament Tissue
Training Time: 4 weeks
Lasting Time: 1 week (Extendable like the Cougar)

The Falcon functions much like the Cougar in battle, except for the fact that it is completely anti-personnel in its objectives. It floats above the battlefield, waiting for a chance to strike. When the opportunity arises, it dives down and rips at its target with its sword-like talons.

If disabled, it detonates a small self-destruct device as soon as a proximity sensor is alerted (I.E. somebody reaches for it) and goes poof.

The AI matrix is relatively simple compared to the Cougar, but is still capable of understanding all but the most complex orders. Training time is similar to the Cougar, as is the imprint process.

We would like to purchase or jointly develop the technology used in your surveillance swarm to be used in a mortar shell for in-battle data accquisition. No more than 4 are needed per shell and they can be cheaper than the original type, being made without the audio scanners, or power gathering systems. They will feed visual data back to say the tank that launched them and it will be put on to a live-map. Would you be interested in such a project and if not will you sell the rights to them so we can modify them to do it?

We find the prospect... intriguing.

It would be necessary to create a detonation system for the shell itself, as the flies cannot withstand the impact of a shell hitting the ground. It would be a simple modification.

Although, a possible alternative would be to modify the Falcon Anti-Personnel with better sensors at the cost of maneuverability. It would simply have to float over the battlefield as it usually does and relay information back to a central mainframe.

We do believe we could modify the surveillance swarm so that it gives a supply of shells each with a group of flies, or we could craft a dedicated Falcon Swarm of maybe 20 birds. Whichever you prefer. Custom jobs cost a tad extra, however.

It will be difficult to determine the final price however, as the Surveillance swarm is designed primarily towards urban warfare and anti-terrorism purposes, hence the extremely large number of individuals and operating area.

MILITARY (Continued)


"Squid" Nautical Attack Droid

Cost: $20million
Unit Size: Single (25% discount if bought in bulk orders of 20 or more!)
Size of Individual: 30 meters long, 4 meter radius at widest point
Top Running Speed: 40 knots at full burst, 30 knots average
Sensory Apparatus: Sonar Array, Audio/Visual Receptors
Armor: Super-Flexible Plastic composite with carbonide steel ribbing
Musculature: Bio-tech muscle filament tissue
Armament: Tentacles, 4 torpedoes, static surge
Training Time: 2 weeks
Lasting Time: Indefinite, Hydrogen fuel cell recycle system enables active time for years.

The mariner's nightmare, the squid is silent, relying on its tentacles for locomotion, and the squid is deadly. The squid is designed for sea-based operations involving the elimination of submarines and large naval vessels.

Hooked up to a primary mainframe (which can be modified to handle multiple individuals), the squid seeks out any un-natural sounding noises in the water, then relays the information back to the central computer for prioritization. If a human controller designates the noise source as a threat, the squid moves in and lets fly with a single torpedo, commonly aimed at the nose of a Submarine or the bottom of a surface vessel.

The squid requires training to determine friend and foe, as do all of the military-type robots, however, training time is less for the squid due to the more restricted nature of its targets.

NOTE: Due to nature of the information relay in the squid, primarily its ability to recieve and transmit through water, one must NOT tamper with a squid or the central computer. This is an ABSOLUTE MUST.

P.S. Training times are in NS timespans... so, 4 weeks would be a matter of minutes.

(Just in case anybody wondered)

(Glorified Tiggity Taggity)

Our aim would be to eventually create a disposable munition fired from a mortar or a smoke grenade tube on a tank that would be able to transmit data to a computer no more powerful than a laptop during battle to serve a team's immediate reconaissance needs. Rather than long term monitoring, these would provide temporary eyes around corners for small operations. A convoy of trucks driving through a city could see RPG ambushes before they encounter them, a team of marines could see machinegunners lurking in bushes over a hill.

Considering that application, one could fit approximately 10 in a small mortar shell. The mortar can be set to detonate in the air and need not be very powerful...

Several technicians have been assigned to the development. How many shells will you need?

A test batch of 4,000 will be ordered, from there we will decide on buying production rights or ordering further production. Please name your price once research is completed!

A slightly less cumbersome control system, 10 flies per shell, dedicated shells... and 4000 shells.

That should come to about...

Actually comes out to the same price as a normal order, customization costs included. Does this accomodate?

Edited to add: Reduced prices on the Fly and Killer Bee swarms

Yes, this is exactly what we need, we will take 19 more orders exactly like our original. Money wired.

Money received, the orders will arrive shortly (one rl day).

Pleasure doing business with you. :)

NOTE

Due to our continuing research in the field of robotics and the craft of digital versions of organic motility analogs, we are commencing research in the field of manned mechanized battle tanks.

We intend to introduce Walker-Type, Spider-Type, and Multi-Theatre type "Mechs", as they are called. It is uncertain how long the research will take, but we suspect that the hard part will be in designing a workable interface between the mech and its pilot. Due to our previous work in the field of robotics, we suspect that research will be... rather swift.