“MOB…Mobility Obstruction Barrier”

In this post, I want to examine a device and technique that nanotroopers use to exercise position and mobility control over moving objects, like enemy soldiers or prisoners. 

It’s called MOB.  And it is a part of the normal kit for any ANAD Detachment.  Every nanotrooper carries a MOB canister.  Let’s take a closer look at this essential piece of mission gear.

Physical Description:

A Mobility Obstruction Barrier is a dense swarm of specially configured nano-robotic elements designed to link into a tight, programmable, semi-autonomous mesh-like barrier.  MOB systems can be used to enclose almost any desired area or volume, from fractions of an inch to kilometers in diameter.  There are practical limits to how well extremely large MOB nets can be deployed and controlled.  But, as an example, in one of The Tales of the Quantum Corps, an effort is made to design a MOB net for an entire island, to quarantine one of the bad guys. 

MOB nets are stored and deployed from canisters.  Un-deployed, MOB is just a few bots hiding out in some kind of containment vessel inside the canister.  The canister contains the containment capsule and all communications elements needed to command and control the MOB bots.  It also contains a baseline amount of atom feedstock, so that when MOB is deployed, it has something to work with. 

The canister has controls on a small thumbpad at the top for initializing, priming and discharging the bots.  Configuration templates are preloaded and because the MOB master bot does not normally have a huge processor, it’s limited in how many different configs it can store.  Here’s one depiction of an individual MOB bot configured to link up with its brothers. 

Capabilities:

MOB systems have some unique capabilities.  As the name suggests, the primary purposes of MOB are to immobilize recalcitrant personnel and to enclose and/or protect specified areas and volumes. 

One of the more interesting capabilities of a MOB system comes from the nature of what it is...a big swarm of nanobots.  Like any ANAD-style nanobot, MOB bots can assume many different configurations, though (as mentioned), their processors don’t match that of a true combat-capable ANAD.  MOB nets are programmable, meaning they can be changed in config on the fly, while in use.  Their immobilizing effects are likewise programmable.  MOB systems can form any kind of barrier from a loose netting to a tightly constricting cocoon-like enclosure.  They can be programmed to literally squeeze the life out of a contained target, or to apply pressure in graded steps, depending on selected parameters…like how hard the target tries to escape.  In other words, the degree of immobilization can be programmed.

MOB systems are also semi-autonomous.  This means that once discharged, the MOB master bots can travel stealthily on propulsors with a small force of obstruction bots, reach its intended target, then replicate at maximum rate and envelope the target in a matter of a few minutes.  The MOB system can be designed to stun, or detain its target in a programmable fashion while the mesh is forming, even up to rendering the target unconscious (though this is rare and requires specially configured MOB masters). 

A special MOB configuration called Clampdown is used when absolute immobility or restraint is required.  When this configuration is selected, the MOB master executes the command and envelopes the target in a highly restrictive, tightly compressed mesh, making it difficult for the poor souls affected even to breathe.  The Clampdown can actually kill if the pressure isn’t reduced after a period of time.

Tactical Employment:

All nanotroopers carry MOB canisters and all are trained in the use, deployment and release of MOB nets in tactical situations. 

A typical use of MOB systems would be to restrain and immobilize enemy combatants who have either been defeated in battle and surrendered or who cannot be assaulted in any other way.  The stealthy and autonomous nature of MOB allows it to be used for surprise effect, even for deception operations, to distract an enemy force from the main line of engagement.

MOB systems are sometimes used against enemy bot swarms, but remember that MOB bots normally have limited processor, limited maneuvering, and very limited effector complements.  Thus they are typically used to engage non-nanobotic targets, like human beings, dangerous animals, runaway vehicles, etc, that can’t fight back at the atomic level.  Using a MOB system to try and engage a fully-capable ANAD combat nanobot is like trying to stop a charging tiger with a spoon.  It doesn’t work. 

One tactic that Quantum Corps has developed is the ability to gang multiple MOB discharges into one larger restraining mesh.  This takes some preliminary programming, for one MOB swarm to accept and interlink with another, but it can be done.  Gang MOB can be used to secure especially large targets, or enclose larger than normal areas or volumes. 

Because MOB systems are barebones yet semi-autonomous ANAD swarms, they can also be configured and programmed to discharge at a set time interval, even multiple time intervals.  Let’s say you’re a commander of an ANAD platoon.  You suspect a house you’re reconnoitering contains some very bad people but you don’t have time or manpower to stake out the place and catch any baddies trying to escape.  Deploy one of more MOB masters into position and program them to deploy on sensing a human-size mass and heat load.  When the baddies open the door and try to escape, or even leave quietly, blam!  MOB drops on top of them and they’re caught.  In this case, MOB was deployed, but replication and containment were set to execute on a given sensor input(s).

Neat, huh?  Your own autonomous, semi-intelligent jail cell.  And it fits inside a canister too.

The next blog post for QC Times will come on August 1, 2016.  This post will cover another piece of mission gear that nanotroopers always carry…camou-fog….programmable swarms that scoop and manipulate photons in such a way as to make you and your buddies invisible or at least blend you into the background.

See you in August.

Phil B.

“How Do You Build an ANAD?”

For this month, we’re going to look at the details of actually building and initializing an Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler or ANAD system.  For ease of explanation, I’ve put this process in a list of steps, each of which I’ll expand on.  It’s also appropriate to recall here that among other things, ANAD is a weapon system, designed to combat really small enemies.

Here’s the list:

Phase I  Construction

1.  The Core

            a.  Main memory – multiple zettabytes of storage for data and instructions

b.  Working memory – RAM memory for all the many operations that ANAD has to perform

c.  Buffers – software in memory that couples ANAD’s processor with the brain of the nanotrooper.  All sensory inputs from ANAD have to be buffered before a human brain can make sense of them

d.  Config translator – software that takes trooper commands for ANAD to assume a specific configuration and translates them into ANAD-compatible instructions…i.e., move this effector ten degrees and rotate twenty degrees, etc

e.  Quantum processor – the CPU; a quantum computer with extremely fast execution speed; able to use qubits to execute multiple instructions in parallel like the human brain. Provides ANAD 1.0 with approximate cognitive capacity of a five-year old.

2.  Main Platform and Actuator Mast – the structural foundation of the ANAD system with a narrow column or mast to which most actuators and effectors are joined, with articulating multiple degree of freedom axes.

3.  Power Cells (picowatt) – ANAD power cells are powered by nuclear fission of long-lived radionuclide elements, essentially a radioisotope thermoelectric generator.  Power output is in picowatts (trillionths of a watt).  

4.  Propulsors

a.  Normal (flagellar screws) – whiplike propellers for maneuvering ANAD in confined spaces, where precision is required.  Similar to bacterial flagella.

            b.  Quantum wave – ANAD has the capability to propel itself even if it has lost its entire actuator mast and all normal propulsors.  This can occur during a ‘quantum collapse’ maneuver, where ANAD sloughs everything but its core.  Quantum wave propulsion makes use of extremely rapid entanglement state changes, which heat the surrounding medium, generating a propulsive wave, like a surfer, on which ANAD can travel for short distances.  Often used as an escape maneuver.

5.  Sensors and Actuators (generally self explanatory)

            a.  Pyridine probes

            b.  Carbene grabbers

            c.  Enzymatic knife

            d.  Hydrogen abstractors

            e.  Bond disrupters

            f.  Fullerene grapples

            g.  Ribosomal systems

            h.  Photon lens

6.  Connection and Bonding – all elements have to work together, sensing target atoms and molecules and communicating what they sense to the core.

Phase II:  Animation – this phase involves powering up, energizing and initializing an ANAD system in a systematic manner.

1.  Lay-in triggers – triggers are the starting points, literally effector starting coordinates, for replication and all configuration changes

2.  Seed growth medium – ANAD requires some kind of feedstock in order to replicate.  Config changes don’t need this, but any replication cycle requires the config translator to be ‘primed’ to sense and accept a variety of feedstock atoms.  This is done by exposing the config engine to the types of atoms it is likely to encounter.

3.  Base replication  - these steps are followed to ensure that ANAD can perform a basic replication cycle, i.e., ANAD can copy and reproduce itself accurately. All facets of the rep cycle are exercised and ANAD’s response is analyzed at each step.

            a.  Transmission

            b.  Reception

            c.  Execution

            d.  Examine memory

4.  Learn-in comm centers  - this involves activating and testing each communication channel that ANAD uses…, bandwidth constraints, test messages, etc. 

            a.  Acoustic

            b.  EM

            c.  ELF

            d.  Quantum coupler

            e.  Voice synthesis and response

5.  Activate sensor algorithms and substrates – involves priming all sensor channels with test data and examining and analyzing ANAD’s response.  Because ANAD has quantum capabilities, it has sensors which can perform a lot of analysis on sensor data before it ever gets to the CPU.

6.  Basic operations – this is the process of exercising and testing ANAD in a variety of simple operations

            a.  Launch and recovery in containment

            b.  Disassembly of simple structures

            c.  Assembly of simple structures

            d.  3-axis (non-swarm) config changes

            e.  Elementary swarm operations

            f.  Controlled replication

            g.  Combat replication

Phase III: Unit Readiness

1.  Load tactical config templates and verify – tests ANAD’s ability to accept and execute tactically relevant configurations needed to perform its many missions.

2.  Combat swarm operations – demonstrates ANAD’s ability to replicate a swarm of like assemblers of any given size in a tactically useful timeframe and conduct single swarm maneuvers

3.  Demonstrate small-unit tactics – here ANAD operates as a swarm with a human unit and coordinates and synchronizes operations with human nanotoopers.

4.  Program and control systems integration/verification – verifies that ANAD master bot and replicant swarms can be effectively controlled and responds properly to control inputs.

5.  Response checks – tests and validates ANAD’s response to all tactical commands in a warfighting environment, with jamming, environmental stresses, etc.

6.  Exercise all inhibits and constraint checks – final check on all fail-safe, fail-operational and redundancy systems.  Ensures ANAD responds to all overrides and safety commands.

7.  Verify all final configs – re-loads and verifies accuracy and executability of mission configurations needed for anticipated tactical scenarios, conflicts and adversaries.

8.  READY!  Now you know how to build, setup and test an Autonomous Nanoscale Assembler/Disassembler. 

Hopefully, the end result looks something like this…

In the next post to Quantum Corps Times, we’ll learn more about how Mobility Obstruction Barrier (MOB) systems work and just what you can do with them.

See you on July 1.

Phil B.