A turboprop engine powered airplane the size of a jet fighter capable of flying 300mph and reaching 50,000ft, isn’t too impressive for the US Military huh? Our military has more of them than we do items in our house. How about one that’s comes complete with infrared, laser and radar targeting with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles? Ok, this jet is getting a little cooler. Oh yeah, did I mention it is completely unmanned and that the pilot flies the plane while sitting at a video console in Nevada nearly 7,000 miles away?

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the emotional attachment soldiers have with their robots. We are glad this new technology is keeping more soldiers safe. It would make sense that such machines would become endearing to the very people they help protect.

“Sometimes they get a little emotional over it,” Bogosh says. “Like having a pet dog. It attacks the IEDs, comes back, and attacks again. It becomes part of the team, gets a name. They get upset when anything happens to one of the team. They identify with the little robot quickly. They count on it a lot in a mission.”

The bots even show elements of “personality,” Bogosh says. “Every robot has its own little quirks. You sort of get used to them. Sometimes you get a robot that comes in and it does a little dance, or a karate chop, instead of doing what it’s supposed to do.” The operators “talk about them a lot, about the robot doing its mission and getting everything accomplished.” He remembers the time “one of the robots happened to get its tracks destroyed while doing a mission.” The operators “duct-taped them back on, finished the mission and then brought the robot back” to a hero’s welcome.

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We have previously blogged about Automatika and their Dragon Runner robot. We met the owner Mr. Schempf and he showed us how tough his robots were. We were smitten. (With the robots, not Mr. Schempf) Apparently we weren’t the only ones to like his robots because Foster-Miller Inc. just acquired his company.

Two robotics-related companies with Carnegie Mellon University roots have been acquired for as much as $9.2 million by Foster-Miller Inc., the largest supplier of robots to the Department of Defense.

The deal is expected to increase employment at both companies, and help breathe life into the Pittsburgh area’s eight-year-old nickname “Roboburgh,” as the region graduates from being just an idea developer to producing what its researchers dream up, experts said.

O’Hara-based Automatika Inc., which designs, develops prototypes and does small-scale manufacturing of robotic systems, and Applied Perception Inc. of Cranberry, which creates software and control systems for navigating unmanned ground vehicles, will be able to fast-forward their designs and ideas, executives said.

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Check out Automatika’s hilarious video where they beat the crap out of their robots.

This army project has been making the rounds on the internet. The Flying Saucer works using the Coanda Effect which makes for a compact blade system to lift a larger bodied object. Pretty smart!

Related Links:
Wired - most in depth info
JNL Labs - Pictures of Assembly
Coandă effect @ Wikipedia

I am most impressed by the fact that the wheels on this robot can actually change shape. Check out the mini flash clip or video after the jump.

This portable, lightweight robot is operated by a single operator, and is designed to negotiate obstacles typical of an urban environment, such as climbing stairs and rubbles, when performing surveillance, reconnaissance and support troops in urban warfare missions. The vehicle uses the “Galileo Wheel”, a patented system developed by Galileo Mobility Instruments ltd. that allows automatic back and forth conversion among a wheel configuration, a track configuration and a special stair climbing configuration. (View a video showing the performance of the Galileo robot prototype).

via defence-update.com via digg post

Boston Dynamics makes some very advanced robots !

Thought-controlled robotic limbs were only the beginning.

hand.jpgScientists have had a string of remarkable successes lately, taking signals from the brains of monkeys and men, and using them to move mechanical arms.

Darpa, the Pentagon’s blue-sky research division, now wants to ratchet that work up about ten notches, by developing a “neurally controlled artificial limb that will restore full motor and sensory capability to upper extremity amputee patients. This revolutionary prosthesis will be controlled, feel, look and perform like the native limb.”

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via Digg

I would not want this robot chasing me. Nothing stops it. Watch the videos after the jump to see it climb over piles of rubble and branches with ease.

From the Chaos Homepage:

Chaos is a highly mobile small robot useful for

* explosive ordinance disposal,
* surveillance,
* reconnaissance,
* search and rescue,
* hauling gear,
* and other dull, dirty, or dangerous tasks.

Chaos is a robotic platform with four configurable and independently controlled tracks. Its superior design allows it to go where no other robotic platform of its size can go. It can handle terrain like stairs, train tracks, rubble piles, gravel, and steep grades of loose debris. It was recently tested at Disaster City in Texas, the premier search and rescue training ground. There, in some of the most difficult terrain a robot will encounter, Chaos demonstrated its superior mobility.

The basic Chaos platform is fully JAUS compatible. Chaos has the volume and weight capacity to handle the load of a wide variety of sensor and robotic payloads, such as an arm for EOD applications or senosrs for Hazmat situations. Chaos is supplied with Mobi, ASI’s handheld operator control unit (OCU) loaded with the Mobius software, the universal control for unmanned systems. Mobius supports operational modes from simple tele-operation to multi-vehicle autonomous behavior. The combination of Chaos, Mobi, and Mobius provides the power, design and intelligence you need to go to more places.

Chaos, weighing in at 120 pounds, has more torque and payload capacity than any robot in its weight range. It uses an ultra-efficient motor and gearbox design to acheive impressive torque and an operational battery life of three hours. The design also makes it very quiet, with virtually no gear or motor noise.

Chaos uses an ultra-efficient motor and gearbox design to acheive impressive torque and an operational battery life of three hours. Chaos is modularly designed, so all components (tracks, arms, drive modules, electronics module, battery, and chassis) can easily be replaced in the field. All components connect solidly together without any velcro or straps.

VIA slashgear, technabob

Chaos homepage

The RedOwl is a robotic head that looks more like a PowerPoint projector than a sharpshooter’s worst enemy. But don’t let its Circuit City appearance fool you: Controlled by a laptop-wielding soldier, the RedOwl’s superior senses can read a nametag from across a football field and identify the make and model of a rifle fired a mile away simply by analyzing the sound of the distant blast. And soon it could be putting its powers to use in Iraq.RedOwl’s developer, Glenn Thoren, now a director at Insight Technology in Londonderry, New Hampshire, says several prototypes have finished an intensive 10-week field test at Fort Benning in Georgia. Given the defense department’s budget approval early this year, he hopes the $150,000 sniper-finders will be in Iraq by this spring. The robot’s mechanical ears were originally designed to improve hearing aides. But Thoren, then with Boston University’s Photonics Center, which heads the RedOwl project, thought up a new application after learning of a spike in sniper activity surrounding Iraqi hotspots like Abu Ghraib prison… read more

via zinzi & popsci