Militarizing an EUC?

[WakefulTraveller]

While I find the thought of giving the electric unicycle to the military to be distasteful, I think that it could really revolutionize ground warfare. Imagine if you will a heavily armored soldier nimbly weaving through a war torn environment on one of these electric unicycles with their hands free to hold a weapon or other equipment and being able to quickly engage an enemy all the while speeding toward them, nimbly avoiding fire, and taking them by bewildered surprise and completely overwhelming them. This might prove even better than a futuristic armored exoskeleton, but imagine the two combined! Such a monstrosity would be a nigh unstoppable. 

+ Relatively quiet.

+ More height and therefore more spacial awareness from being able to see over people's heads.

+ Bulky armor will no longer slow a solider down or be as encumbering.

+ It would make patrols more swift and effective

+ A soldier would be free to aim their weapon while moving forward with haste, removing the need for cover based warfare.

+ An incredible amount of convenience.

+ Can be easily ditched if no longer needed.

- Difficult to really master, and it therefore calls for extensive training.

So what are your guy's thoughts on this?

-edit- So I just realized / remembered that there's something like this already... but it's a segway... and in other words... lame.

[lizardmech]

I thought the same thing, it seems silly at first but an expensive military EUC would probably only be 10kg with 30km range or more. Being able to get out of a helicopter and travel 30km in an hour or so with full combat gear and minimal exertion is pretty useful. You can put them on your back for traversing difficult terrain which you can't do with a motorbike.

[mich]

@WakefulTraveller Have you been in the army? I've not, but it seems to me, that some EUC features mentioned as advantages are actually disadvantages.
-  More height  also means less cover, easier to target.
- patrols more swift and effective - Are soldiers still patrolling these days? Surveillance technology(cameras and other sensors), patrol robots, UAVs will do much better job than soldier, and also probably cheaper.
-  free to aim their weapon while moving forward? I'd love to see that
Army is already developing other technologies, which suits their needs better than EUC, namely Powered exoskeleton.

[MarkoMarjamaa]

Actually I think you can aim better while riding EU than while running.

I hope that someday we get enough EU riders in my area so we can go paintballing.

[DS]

10 hours ago, WakefulTraveller said:

giving the electric unicycle to the military

If EUC had been useful for the military, this technology would have been developed for them, like internet, drones, etc.

I think DARPA is going more in another direction - more robots, less human soldiers, more UAV & operators and less classic planes & pilots.

But combat robots on legs and wheel according to the  terrain is a good idea

[esaj]

58 minutes ago, DS said:

If EUC had been useful for the military, this technology would have been developed for them, like internet, drones, etc.

I think DARPA is going more in another direction - more robots, less human soldiers, more UAV & operators and less classic planes & pilots.

But combat robots on legs and wheel according to the  terrain is a good idea

Yup, Boston Dynamics has already developed bi- and quadruped robots, under DARPA funding:

 

Soon...

[Blunzn]

it probably still needs some time until they become a real threat

 

[MarkoMarjamaa]

 

[mich]

9 hours ago, Blunzn said:

it probably still needs some time until they become a real threat

Yes, it could take some time, but keep in mind  that new technologies are being developed faster than before. First DARPA Grand Challenge was in 2004, nowadays - 12 years later - self-driving cars can navigate in urban traffic with accident rate a few orders of magnitude lower than average human driven car. 

[Blunzn]

ofc sometime it will happen, but until they take over the world we can equip drones with guns, rockets, tasers, epm to fight them off ...

i see the EUC idea as happening faster. maybe they have to get common first or be seen as serious off-terrain vehicle. till now most see them as just another hoverboard "toy".

[Hunka Hunka Burning Love]

2 hours ago, MarkoMarjamaa said:

 

So it begins... the mistreatment of robots (hitting boxes out of it's hands and reach and knocking it down) leading to their ultimate takeover of the planet and becoming our overlords.  At the end of the video it's like "I quit who needs this s*&$ - see ya later, and it exits out the door into the wild."

But really, why emulate legs which aren't the most efficient at moving from point A to point B?  They need to slap on a EUC with tank track and a gyrostabilizer on it so it won't fall over sideways and then we'd be talking.  Why make robots in our image when they can be made better?  I think the military would be more interested in a self-balancing EUC that is armour-plated which has remote guns and cameras that a team of operators can control.  Think of it as a high speed ground based drone.   Heck - incorporate a hexcopter on top that detaches and fly it in to deploy and fly it out.   This type of remote robot can roll quickly into hostile situations.  With a gyro-uprighting system like in that self-uprighting box video I posted, even if it gets knocked down it can right itself up.

[Blunzn]

39 minutes ago, HunkaHunkaBurningLove said:

With a gyro-uprighting system like in that self-uprighting box video I posted, even if it gets knocked down it can right itself up.

oh yeah gyros  

 

[WakefulTraveller]

I'd like to see stabilization gyros on regular EUCs; they could then self balance and double as a drones (I'm sure that the military would love this for further surveillance after dropping off a passenger). Plus it would be conceivable that these gyros could make the wheel more stable and and therefore harder to crash.

[lizardmech]

Combining them with exoskeletons might work well, you already have batteries there. The biggest issue with the exoskeletons so far is that they are too tiring on long walks and burn a lot of energy walking across flat terrain.

[yvesCr]

What about the police; the same idea could apply to them.

[Blunzn]

14 minutes ago, yvesCr said:

What about the police; the same idea could apply to them.

some police tried it already for patroling pedestrian areas.