How convenient it would be to have tanks that could

A) do their bit on the battlefield and also

B) de-swarm (if I can say that?) to go through/around/under obstacles to get to the troops behind?

Wait no longer, currently prototyping little swarmable tanks with a short piece of barrel, which in swarm-mode connects together (like that busy lizzie gun) to take on armour.

In de-swarmed mode the mini tanks separate as needed and the highly sharpened match-sticks can give a nasty jab.

In the pipeline is a way to remotely recharge the mini- tanks. It's kind of 50/50 at the moment, Tesla recharging, or just a human crew pumping hydraulic fluid to rewind the rubber bands from a safe distance.
-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 18 2017

Same tool, different application Urban_20Remote_20Herding_20Array
[normzone, Oct 18 2017]

Mini-tanks already exist https://battlebots.com/
All they need is swarm capability [Vernon, Oct 18 2017]

Quadcopters have been able to work in adaptive swarms for several years. (See the GRASP Lab's work.) Those algorithms should be easy to adapt to ground vehicles.
-- notexactly, Mar 18 2018


Well, what's our target here? I think armed aerial drones are the future so putting your armed swarming vehicles on the ground seems like a step backwards.

I think small tanks are great for urban areas where you might want to enter the target stealthily but not sure if you'd need a coordinated swarm of them for any reason.
-- doctorremulac3, Mar 19 2018



random, halfbakery