Mil-Tech

$20M Order from NAVSEA Keeps iRobot Corp Thriving

Following better-than-expected results for the second quarter of 2010, leading robotics company iRobot Corp. continues its strong performance for this year, this time by winning a $20.3 million contract for battle-tested robots from the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). The order, a standalone contract, is for 125 PackBot Man Transportable Robotic System (MTRS) robots. The deal also includes spare parts and repair services if needed.

The PackBot MTRS robot’s predecessor, the highly-succesful iRobot 510 PackBot, is one of the most popular battlefield robots in the world today. They are deployed in war-ravaged areas including Iraq and Afghanistan, and are used in hazardous missions primarily to search for and neutralize hidden explosives. These robots have proven their reliability in deactivating car bombs, roadside bombs, and improvised explosive devices or IEDs.

Robots, said iRobot President for Government and Industrial Robots Division Joe Dryer, have long shown their worth on the battlefield. With roadside bombs and similar devices continuing to pose danger in Iraq and Afghanistan, he emphasizes the need for “outfitting our troops with tools to ensure they stay as safe as possible.”

“The iRobot PackBot is saving lives, and we are honored to be providing this technology to the military“, Dryer adds.

It can be recalled that just last month, iRobot also received an order for 94 units of Small Unmanned Ground Vehicles or SUGVs as part of a $14.6 million contract with the US Army.

To date, iRobot Corp has filled orders for more than 3,500 unmanned ground vehicles from both the military and public safety organizations.

C.R.A.B. Robotic System To Help Cops And Militia

If you love watching Robocop and have ever wondered that if such robot should exist in reality to help the police and military forces in their operations, then that is very soon to be true because the development of the C.R.A.B. robotic sentry system is on full swing.

A joint venture of the weapons manufacturer Dalton/Stanley and Mega Corporation Omni Consumer Products, this technology will soon be revealed to the world in a street trial of London. The technologies used and in fact, the time taken for releasing just a glimpse of the 3D design concept of this robotic system is making one thing sure that not only the robot world but the defense system is about to be enhanced and to be taken to a new level.

The making of the C.R.A.B. (Cybernetic Autonomous Remote Barricade) system took 12 long years and the thing that is creating much of the buzz and curiosity among the spectators is that the technologies and the artificial intelligence used for the development of the robotic system have been kept very much confidential.

The little bit of information leaked about the C.R.A.B. robotic sentry system states that it has six legs and comes with some superior sort of unbreakable body armor. The notable armors fitted in this robotic sentry system comprise of twin cannons, gas and even smokescreen abilities. The striking factor is that it can differentiate between the natures of two types of men and can perceive who is friend and who is foe.

While exclaiming at the technologies behind the C.R.A.B. robotic sentry system, the year long efforts and pains of the scientists and the workers cannot be left unseen. First of all, the defense forces must thank these two companies the Dalton/Stanley and the Mega Corporation Omni Consumer Products who have thought about something so revolutionary.

Think for a moment when very soon in the future, this robotic defense system will be seen patrolling in the local streets and detaining people found roaming around with wrong motives!

Other than this C.R.A.B. robotic system, a line of other military robotic units too is currently undergoing developments. The technologies and features used for the manufacturing of these military robots are to an extent quite same with the C.R.A.B. and these will also work for bringing effective results and for relieving the defense force

Armed Robots Deployed By South Korea in Demilitarized Zone

Two robots with surveillance, tracking, firing and voice recognition systems were integrated into a single unit, a defence ministry spokesman said.

The 400 million won (£220,000) unit was installed last month at a guard post in the central section of the Demilitarised Zone which bisects the peninsula, Yonhap news agency said.

It quoted an unidentified military official as saying the ministry would deploy sentry robots along the world’s last Cold War frontier if the test was successful.

The robot uses heat and motion detectors to sense possible threats, and alerts command centres, Yonhap said.

If the command centre operator cannot identify possible intruders through the robot’s audio or video communications system, the operator can order it to fire its gun or 40mm automatic grenade launcher.

South Korea is also developing highly sophisticated combat robots armed with weapons and sensors that could complement human soldiers on battlefields.

It has a largely conscripted military of 655,000 against Pyongyang’s 1.2 million-strong force, but a falling birth rate means Seoul will struggle in the future to maintain troop numbers.

Elbit introduces new tactical robots

Israel’s Elbit Systems has added new hand-portable robots to its line of products for surveillance, reconnaissance and support for troops in urban environments.

The new additions to the VIPeR system of unmanned ground systems are the Mini-VIPeR and Maxi-VIPeR, which feature body-mounted sensors and flat top and bottom surfaces for the mounting of mission payloads.

The Mini-VIPeR is a one-person portable system that weighs about 7.7 pounds. It’s equipped with advanced sensors that allow full operation in adverse terrain, the company said.

The compact Maxi-VIPeR robot is designed to carry sensors and tele-operated manipulator arms for the handling of explosive devices and other hazardous materials.

Elbit Systems said both robots bear a resemblance to the Beagle, developed by Elbit Systems of America, but are closer to the Israeli-designed VIPeR which is being used by the Israeli military.

All VIPeRs are designed for portability and high mobility and can be configured with add-on sensors, modules and payloads for a variety of tasks.

Israel building robot army

ISRAEL is developing an army of robotic fighting machines that offers a window onto the potential future of warfare.Sixty years of near-constant war, a low tolerance for enduring casualties in conflict, and its hi-tech industry have long made Israel one of the world’s leading innovators of military robotics, The Wall Street Journal revealed.

In 10 to 15 years, one-third of Israel’s military machines will be unmanned, predicts Giora Katz, vice president of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., one of Israel’s leading weapons manufacturers.

In the 2006 Lebanon War, Israeli soldiers took a beating opening supply routes and ferrying food and ammunition through hostile territory to the front lines.

In the Gaza conflict in January 2009, Israel unveiled remote-controlled bulldozers to help address that issue.

Within the next year, Israeli engineers expect to deploy the voice-commanded, six-wheeled Rex robot, capable of carrying 550 pounds of gear alongside advancing infantry.

Robotics -TARDEC Will Serve As Partner In Michigan-based Robotics Cluster Initiative

TARDEC has reportedly informed it is going to support the Southeastern Michigan Automotive-Robotics Initiative as the organization feels that Michigan has the people, the expertise and the potential to help cater to the robotic requirements of the Department of Defense.

Headquartered at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Mich., TARDEC, part of the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, is the country’s laboratory for sopchisticated military automotive technology. It develops and integrates the right technology solutions to improve the effectiveness of the current force and realize the superior capability of the future force in order to facilitate Army transformation.

According to officials, the Great Lakes Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International will host an Automotive-Robotics Cluster Initiative Partnership Workshop on July 28-29 that will seek to bring together existing automotive infrastructure with the robotics needs of the DOD.

The goal of the event is to work on the framework put forth by the DOD’s Mentor Protégé Robotics Initiative and bring out ideas to help Michigan automotive-based corporations to grow the emerging robotics cluster in the state.

The DOD Mentor-Protégé Program assists small businesses to successfully compete for contracts by partnering with large companies under individual, project-based agreements.

Among the partners involved in this effort is the U.S. Small Business Administration, which during the event will organize a resource center that will enlighten companies about the various resources available through the SBA, DOD, and state and regional economic development authorities.

The conference will be hosted by the Great Lakes Chapter of AUVS with U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research and Development Center Joint Center for Robotics, National Automotive Center, the Small Business Administration (SBA), the DOD’s Office of Small Business programs, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and Automation Alley at Oakland University’s Oakland Center.

TARDEC along with Altair recently emphasized the need for increased modeling and simulation in the development of military ground vehicles.

Armed Robots Marching Into Battle?

 Soldiers may have armed robots as battle buddies by early next year, according to industry and military officials attending the biennial Army Science Conference.

The Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, or SWORDS, will be joining Stryker Brigade Soldiers in Iraq when it finishes final testing, said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, a bomb disposal test and evaluation NCOIC with the EOD Technology Directorate of the Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

“We’re hoping to have them there by early 2005,” Tordillos said. “The Soldiers I’ve talked to want them yesterday.”

The system consists of a weapons platform mounted on a Talon robot, a product of the engineering and technology development firm Foster-Miller. The Talon began helping with military operations in Bosnia in 2000, deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002 and has been in Iraq since the war started, assisting with improvised explosive device detection and removal. Talon robots have been used in about 20,000 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Foster-Miller reports.

“It’s not a new invention, its just bringing together existing systems,” said Tordillos, who has been involved with the project since its inception about a year and a half ago.

Different weapons can be interchanged on the system – the M16, the 240, 249 or 50-caliber machine guns, or the M202 –A1 with a 6mm rocket launcher. Soldiers operate the SWORDS by remote control, from up to 1,000 meters away. In testing, it’s hit bulls eyes from as far as 2,000 meters away, Tordillos said. The only margin of error has been in sighting, he added.

“It can engage while on the move, but it’s not as accurate,” Tordillos said.

The system runs off AC power, lithium batteries or Singars rechargeable batteries. The control box weighs about 30 pounds, with two joysticks that control the robot platform and the weapon and a daylight viewable screen.

SWORDS recently was named one of the most amazing inventions of 2004 by Time Magazine.
There are four SWORDS in existence; 18 have been requested for service in Iraq, Tordillos said. So far, each system has cost about $230,000 to produce, said Bob Quinn, lead integrator for the project. When they go into production, Quinn estimates the cost per unit will drop to the range of $150,000 to $180,000.

Quinn credits Soldiers with getting the project started.

“It’s a classic boot-strap effort,” said Quinn.

Tordillos fielded a variety of questions while showing off the system in the exhibit hall. Soldiers wanted to know what military occupational speciality they have to sign up for in order to work with the system. There is no specific MOS for it, he said.

Other questions were more thought provoking. Does he envision a day when armed robots outnumber humans on the battlefield? Tordillos firmly said no.

“You’ll never eliminate the Soldier on the ground,” he said. “There’ll be a mix, but there will always be Soldiers out there.”

RMT Robotics Delivers Lean Manufacturing Solution to Otis Technology, Inc. Using an Intelligent AGV

Otis Technology manufactures the advanced gun care systems, which are widely regarded by experts as the most advanced gun cleaning system in the world. As a major supplier of gun cleaning equipment to the US Army, Air force, Marine Corps, Navy and Special Ops Units, Otis has experienced exponential growth in sales, which in turn has resulted in an increase in production. Having truly embraced the lean manufacturing philosophy, Otis plans on utilizing ADAMs to streamline their parts delivery process and optimizing the assembly process to achieve JIT (just in time) delivery of parts. Otis Technology, Inc. Operations Director, Mike York says, “New technology, like RMT’s ADAM will continue to play a key role in Otis Technology’s success, growth and sustainability.”

“The Otis application is ideal for the ADAM platform as their factory operation can take full advantage of ADAM’s “random origin to random destination” nature, navigating around obstacles that are expected and unexpected”, says Bill Torrens, VP of Sales and Marketing for RMT Robotics. He goes on to say, “lean manufacturing is a foundation philosophy for Otis and key to their future, so we at RMT are proud that ADAM was selected to be such an integral part of Otis’ strategy for growth and success”.

Robot land-steamers to consume all life on Earth as fuel

News has emerged of a milestone reached on the road towards a potentially world-changing piece of technology. We speak, of course, of US military plans to introduce roving steam-powered robots which would fuel themselves by harvesting everything alive and cramming it into their insatiable blazing furnaces.

The scheme is officially referred to as Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot (EATR™) by those behind it. It will come as no surprise to Reg readers that the funding is from DARPA, the famous Pentagon warboffinry bureau. If you’re a hammer, all the problems start to look like nails: if you’re DARPA, all the solutions start to look like robots.

The idea of EATR is ostensibly that military reconnaissance droids far behind enemy lines would be able to forage for fuel. Robotic Technology Inc, lead contractor on the EATR, puts it thus:

EATR is an autonomous robotic platform able to perform long-range, long-endurance military missions without the need for manual or conventional re-fueling. The patent pending robotic system can find, ingest and extract energy from biomass in the environment, as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, diesel, propane and solar) when suitable.
The machine runs on a “biomass furnace” which powers a steam generator driving a “waste heat engine” from Cyclone Power Technologies. These pieces of kit will now be mated together within 90 days, according to RTI.

The robot steamers are envisaged as being equipped with powerful articulated arms in order to rip trees or bushes out of the earth and stuff them into their glowing maws. By way of a treat, it seems that the machines will also be able to loot or forage more conventional fuel supplies from the petrol tanks of cars, domestic gas cylinders and so on. Cyclone says that their engine can also run happily on old apple cores, banana peel and other kitchen garbage gleaned from bins.

Hapless drivers or householders will be in no position to object to such robotic plundering: military reconnaissance vehicles are typically heavily armed, and doubtless the EATR will be no exception. It might also be fitted with DARPA’s SELF tech, enabling it to construct copies of itself and modify its own design.

Even more disturbingly, it seems clear that the EATRs could run on various other kinds of organic matter, for instance bodies. No doubt things would start small, with roving EATRs scooping roadkill, stray cats and such into their fireboxes and reaping fresh energy from their rich, blazing dripping.

From there it would be only a small step to the inevitable harvesting of every living thing on Earth. Trees, crops, garbage, cattle, the very human race itself – all would go to feed the hungry roaring furnaces and drive the clanking, puffing, smoke-belching mechanical locusts onward until the sooty corpse-pall from their engines covered the entire Earth. An Earth which would be home in time to nothing but slowly powering-down EATRs, prowling across endless ashy plains of their own droppings.

Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies

It could be a combination of 19th-century mechanics, 21st-century technology — and a 20th-century horror movie.

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

Robotic Technology Inc.’s Energetically Autonomous Tactical Robot — that’s right, “EATR” — “can find, ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, heavy fuel, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable,” reads the company’s Web site.

That “biomass” and “other organically-based energy sources” wouldn’t necessarily be limited to plant material — animal and human corpses contain plenty of energy, and they’d be plentiful in a war zone.

EATR will be powered by the Waste Heat Engine developed by Cyclone Power Technology of Pompano Beach, Fla., which uses an “external combustion chamber” burning up fuel to heat up water in a closed loop, generating electricity.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced.

Upon the EATR platform, the Pentagon could build all sorts of things — a transport, an ambulance, a communications center, even a mobile gunship.

In press materials, Robotic Technology presents EATR as an essentially benign artificial creature that fills its belly through “foraging,” despite the obvious military purpose.