By Ann Roosevelt
Tactical communication are vital for understanding the environment, for command and coordination, and working under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program, iRobot [IRBT] is using very small robots to form a network to keep communications up, a company official said.
“It’s a palm-size robot and the concept is one of providing ground troops, especially in the urban environment, with a mobile, ad hoc network,” said Joe Dyer, president of iRobot’s Government /Industrial Robots Division.
The problems of maintaining communications with soldiers on the move will be aided by small robots like the iRobot LANdroid that can form a communications network and ensure everyone is on the net and in contact, he told Defense Daily yesterday at the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) in Washington D.C.
Through autonomous movement and intelligent control algorithms, several LANdroids can overcome some communications problems caused by buildings or shadows to keep communications moving. iRobot is building the small droids to be robust enouigh to be dropped, smart enough to navigate with soldiers and able to form and maintain a network.
DARPA expects LANdroids to be small and inexpensive. The concept is that soldiers or other warfighters would carry several LANdroids that they could drop, either one or more as needed. They would form a network.
“We’re also excited about it because we can see many different things to do with this small robotic platform,” Dyer said.
The palm size unit has slender extensions off the back of the tracked vehicle.
“Believe it or not, this robot can climb stairs,” he said.
iRobot’s LANdroid looks somewhat similar, though greatly reduced in size, to the company’s successful PackBot, with tracks and flippers allowing it to climbs stairs if needed while performing hazardous material or IED-destruction chores, surveillance, or examining the inside of buildings, keeping soldiers away from potential danger. More than 2,500 PackBots have been delivered worldwide.
For maritime applications, iRobot also has the Seaglider, a deep diving unmanned underwater vehicle that is designed to operate autonomously for months, and can cover thousands of miles.
“It can cross the Atlantic on its own,” Dyer said. One of the many company products on view at AUVSI, Seaglider missions range from harbor protection to oceanography to surveillance and reconnaissance and mine detection.
There is a connection between LANdroid and Seaglider, Dyer said. “The thread is that…you can see autonomy, applications of artificial intelligence, that will greatly aid the warfighter and they’re going to find their way into everything from small palm-size robots for ad hoc networking to sea gliders that will literally cross the ocean. It’s an exciting time.”