Re: Working on some Field Artillery - s.I.G. 33 [TANKS]

[Frank Pittelli <frank-at-rctankcombat.com>]

Bernard Elgar wrote:
> Just a thought -
> 
> Could a motion sensor be used to activate firing of such artillery pieces?
> 

No on many accounts.

1) That would be considered "fully-automatic" since no operator firing 
motion is required for each shot.  Only "semi-automatic" (an operator 
firing motion per shot) is allowed.

2) That would pose a safety risk since the marker would not be able to 
differentiate between a vehicle and a human.  At close range, a marker 
activated by motion sensor could cause some serious bruises on someone 
passing by.

3) From a practical stand-point, you're also talking about a fairly 
sophisticated problem to solve.  After all, there is lots of motion on 
the battlefield, so which motion would the sensor choose to fire upon? 
Furthermore, the elevation would need to be adjusted automatically to 
account for the range to the target.  A few years back we loaned a 
warship to some Naval Academy seniors so they could build such a firing 
system for our BB cannons.  They were pretty bright guys and they worked 
for a semester, but never did achieve a solution reliable enough for the 
battlefield.

4) By the time you have all the problems worked out and have convinced 
the other battlers that it is safe enough to change the rules, any 
average 10 year-old rookie with a cheap manual controller will still 
out-shoot you :-)

        Frank P.