Robots: Robot Cannon Leaves Nine Soldiers Dead

Noah over at Wired has produced a fantastic article looking into the tragedy that surrounds a recent incident, involving a robotic cannon at The South African National Defense Force, which left nine soldiers dead and fourteen more wounded. According to Noah’s article, during a training exercise last Friday (10.19.07), the cannon began to fire ammunition in an unusual manner, shortly after this initial abnormality the gun was seen to become physically jammed, an explosion then followed and finally the training device began shooting indiscriminately. The majorities of the deaths and injuries were sustained in the final, uncontrolled bout of shooting.
The official bodies in South Africa are reeling from the shock of the accident, but what caused such carnage? Initial suggestions have it that a software error was responsible for the guns errant behavior, but investigations are, as yet, at preliminary stages.
The anti-aircraft unit, an Oerlikon GDF-005, is used […]

Original post by Haroon Malik