this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I read that military used Xbox controller because it was more intuitive than traditional method.

But I do hope that they update / change their gamepad regularly, because thumbstick drift is a thing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I mean there is something to be said for KISS (keep it simple stupid) principles. Especially in an environment that is very unforgiving. In fact in SCUBA there is even a rebreather named as such [1].

And something like an xbox controller is both well engineered and quite intuitive. That said...you are going to want redundancy.

For example I believe SpaceX Dragon uses largely off the shelf computers running linux [2], and not the older rad hardened versions many other space programs require. That said...they also setup them as a to work in triplicate to ensure quorum on the data validity and then have a backup set fo computer in case they cant get quorum out of the primary.

[1] https://www.kissrebreathers.com/

[2] https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9243/what-computer-and-software-is-used-by-the-falcon-9

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

It's even funnier than that. Appearently, for drones they made drone pilots design their optimal input device, and the result was basically a replica of a commonly used Xbox controller. The legal department was dumbfounded because there's obviously protections for an Xbox controller and they just resorted back to the original.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

military used Xbox controller

Isn’t the Xbox controller only used for the periscope?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's various photos online of US and UK militaries using xbox controllers to pilot UAV's.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

That sounds like a perfect use for them!