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December 2, 2004
Battlefield Robotics
The US military is always looking for ways to be a leaner, meaner fighting machine. Most of the superior performance of our war-fighters in the field can be attributed back to our technological edge.
You probably don't think twice about Unmaned Aerial Vechicles when they're mentioned on the news. But in the near future, you can also expect to begin hearing about UGV's, Unmanned Ground Vechicles.
Robots are making tremendous inroads into the ground battlefield environment. The Talon, which has been serving as bomb defusing or ordance disposal robot for years, is now being equipped to carry a grenade launcher and machine gun. The Terminators have arrived.
Also in the development pipeline is the REV or Robotic Extraction Vechicle. This cool unit is essentially a robot ambulance. Safely incased in a light armor shell, the wounded soldiers can be stabilized, then shuttled back to the rear for attention at field hospitals.
John Deere is even working on a version of it's small utility vechicle the Gator for the military. Currently, infantry units are using the small truck/tractors to haul gear. John Deere wants to enable some sort of robotic technology into the M-Gator so that the troops don't have to drive the vehicle. It will just follow the group around and react to information is receives from its sensor array.
Finally, I have to mention the iRobot company. No relation to the movie. These guys make the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. Which is a good christmas present for bachelors, BTW. You can buy one here.
But iRobot is also developing the SUGV, otherwise known as The Soldier's Robot. This things being designed to serve as a personal assistant to the individual soldier, serving as a shooting platform, pack mule or outfitted to whatever speciality the soldier needs.
Very cool technology. Of course I get the mixed feelings about taking the Humanity out of war. Will leaders be more willing to start shooting conflicts when their armies are swarms of UAV's and UGV's instead of humans? What happens when war becomes just another video game?
But generally, I support the development course with all these projects. I'm all for keeping our guys overseas in all the gear they need and anything we can do to make their job easier and safer, I'm giving it my full support.
Oh yeah, the Gladiator for the Marine Corps is really cool too.
--Jason
Posted by JasonColeman at December 2, 2004 10:46 PM
