Leave it to the U.S. military to use every possible method to gain the upper hand. This time saw the Army use cat food boxes to create a 1/35th scale model of an Iraqi city in order to run simulations. Now, why would the Army resort to using decidedly low-tech to assist in its training? As gamers know first-hand, video games still haven’t quite mastered the integration of realistic physics, leading to instances where Army vehicles would cruise right through walls.
The project started back in 2004 with the goal of better understanding how robots and troops interact on the battlefield. Since modifying computer programs to include all the different participants proved prohibitively expensive, as well as taking into account the aforementioned physics problems, the Army decided to embrace kitty’s foodstuffs. The whole setup cost only $5,000 and took six months to build, including the incorporation of all the toy soldiers and miniature flora.
Cat Food Boxes = Army Training Ground [Defense Tech]
