This month the U.S. Army”s Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiments (AEWE) program tested the AimLock Stabilized Weapon Platform for the first time during a live fire exercise. This ungainly-looking gun seeks to revolutionize the average infantryman”s combat effectiveness by removing human error from the equation entirely.
A civilian development company called Rocky Mountain Scientific Laboratory (RMSL), based in Littleton, Colorado, designed the AimLock system. This smart gun”s goal is to aid engagement of moving targets, mitigate “shooter wobble” when firing from the standing position, eliminate shooter error, and significantly reduce target acquisition time. Here”s how it works:
“An electromechanical system translates an “aiming error” signal from a target tracking system into dynamic “pointing corrections” for handheld devices to drastically reduce pointing errors due to man-machine wobble without specific direction by the user. The active stabilization targeting correction system works by separating the “support” features of the handheld device from the “projectile launching” features, and controlling their respective motion by electromechanical mechanisms.”
The barrel and receiver of the rifle are independently articulated from the part of the rifle the operator holds. A carriage holds the rifle, separating it from the operator”s point of contact (the grips, butt, sights and trigger). In practice, this setup minimizes the rifleman”s physical effect on the weapon.