A Robot Made of Robots via Ares Over at Fort Benning, soldiers at the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment aren’t waiting for military robot makers to come up with the right mix of robotic capabilities. Putting that military penchant for improvisation into practice, soldiers there are mashing up their military robots to give themselves the capabilities they want, piggybacking one robot on top of the other until they get the right mix of gear.
Specifically, soldiers there mounted a TiaLinx Cougar 10 (that’s the robot that can hear your terrified breathing through a concrete wall via radio frequency sensors) on top of a faster and stronger Lockheed Martin Squad Mission Support System (SMSS), a load-bearing unmanned ground vehicle that went to Afghanistan recently for operational testing.
Related Articles
This Robot Can Hear Your Frightened Breathing, Even Through Walls
A Hexacopter That Sees Motion and Hears Breathing, Even Through Walls
Combined, the two ‘bots performed the mission the soldiers needed it to. But that doesn’t mean a Cougar 10/SMSS blend is a perfect robot by any means. The SMSS is large and loud, unfit for stealthy missions (during another night ambush exercise a SMSS packed with thermal imaging gave away a unit’s position with its engine noise). On the other hand, the Cougar 10 is designed to help soldiers get the drop on their enemies.
But for the mission at hand--sweeping and clearing a series of buildings--it was the right robot for the job. The fact that soldiers were able to quickly build their own customized robot out of robots is cool, both in terms of crafty DIY ingenuity and in terms of the future of modular military robot design.
[Ares]
Previous Article: Bell Labs's Nethead Makes Telepresence Robots Affordable for AllNext Article: Video: A Steerable Remote 'Telexistence' Robot that Transmits Sight, Sound, and Touch to the Operator 5 Comments Link to this comment beantown179 11/08/11 at 6:06 pmWait if we let soldiers do this then how will the defense contractors make all their money?
Link to this comment
JediMindset 11/08/11 at 6:14 pm sadly they wouldn't be giving the soldiers the credit and they pay check. think about it this way, soldiers just follow orders. that's their job. so another "superior" telling them to hand over their creations is just another mission.
_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.
- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri
Link to this comment tcolguin 11/08/11 at 7:10 pmIf you are working for a company and build a new robot, you don't get it either, it is the companies not yours. Nothing different here.
Link to this comment
WhittyMike 11/09/11 at 2:21 pm These are
the droids we've been looking for... Link to this comment Zreiser 11/09/11 at 11:21 pmYo dawg, I heard you liked robots, so we put a robot on your robot, built out of other robots to help make even more robots for your robots!
To comment, please Login. Popular TagsTechnology NASA International Space Station robots space DARPA computers UAVs drones Boeing satellites All Tags All Photos All Videos Photo GalleriesRSS LinkTechnology
Gallery: When the Best Tool Is an Animal
Gallery: A History of Data Theft
Gallery: A Glass Astronomical Database Goes Digital + More Photo Galleries 
Efficiently Recognize Anomalous Data in a Database Regardless of ContextAward: $30,000 USD
Communication Platform to Connect Vulnerable Communities with Climate Change SolutionsAward: $10,000 USDLearn morePowered by Innocentive 
Popular Science+ For iPad
Each issue has been completely reimagined for your iPad. See our amazing new vision for magazines that goes far beyond the printed page
Download Our App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone or Android phone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
November 2011: Data Is Power
This month, we examine all the ways information is driving our future, from dating to crime to how we see the world.
Plus: turning your smartphone into a wallet, BMW's electric cars, and a space heater with no fan.
Read the issue here.
Enter here
Learn more
Find out more
Name Address 1 City State STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware DC Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York N. Carolina N. Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island S. Carolina S. Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington W. Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Zip Code Email Today on PopSci.com 
The Ten Most Amazing Databases in the World581101211
Can Technology Save the Military From a Data Deluge?582371213
See The Data-Centric Universe, Then and Now582431214
The Santa Cruz Experiment: Can a City's Crime Be Predicted and Prevented?576731215
The Glory of Big Data577221216
The Most Amazing Science Images of the Week, October 24-28580521217
Archive Gallery: The Telephone580511218
Gallery: Last Night's Auroras as They Appeared from Across the Hemisphere579731219
iPhone 4S Review: Apple's Restraint5798512110
Inside the DIY Weapons Workshop of the Libyan Rebels5792612111
Archive Gallery: Classic Thrill Rides and Carnival Attractions5776612112 Footer Menu Subscribe to the Print EditionSubscribe to the Digital EditionRenew SubscriptionCustomer ServiceSite MapAbout UsContact UsAdvertisingPrivacy PolicyTerms of UseAbuseRSS FeedsPS Showcase Copyright © 2009 Popular ScienceA Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. bmxmag-ps
No comments:
Post a Comment