The Incredibly Shrinking UGV

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In the early days of the Afghanistan and Iraqi wars, US forces had no effective countermeasures against Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the single biggest cause of combat deaths. To fight the IED threat, our armed forces turned to Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV).

It’s hard to remember now, but UGVs barely existed 10 years ago. The Defense community abandoned the traditionally leisurely pace of decades-long weapons development and quickly flooded combat theaters with thousands of UGVs. In 2011, the world’s governments are projected to spend $702 million a year on UGVs.  Below is a chart comparing a few UGVs. Read more

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Micro UAVs do more than look cool

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Some of the big attractions at last month’s AUVSI North American conference were micro-UAVs.  The Samurai UAV was especially impressive, sporting an unusual asymmetric design.  You may have seen images of this amazing little device, but do yourself a favor and check out the video below of Engineering TV’s interview with Bill Borgia, Director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Lockheed Martin. Read more

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AMREL Ubiquitous at AUVSI 2011

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The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International recently held its annual North America show, and AMREL was
Robotics System Joint Project Office (RSJPO)  there!  In addition to our booth showing off AMREL’s new interoperable payload controller, AMREL’s OCU solutions were displayed by a multitude of vendors, including: Read more

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Unmanned Commercial Domestic Flights: Expert vs. Expert

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Airplane1 resized 600One of the hottest topics in the unmanned systems community is civilian applications. As Smithsonian.com reports in Drones Ready for Takeoff:

“The potential seems limitless—handling routine monitoring of pipelines and power lines, for instance, or gathering geomagnetic data about natural resources (a job that entails flying hundreds of miles in a straight line, at low altitude, then moving 50 yards over and flying straight back). Drones could help farmers monitor crops in distant fields, allow real estate developers to perform simple construction jobs in remote or difficult locations or enable environmentalists to spot polluters.”

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Clichés about unmanned systems that I can do without

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I don’t know about you, but I am sick of certain clichés about unmanned systems and combat.  It’s just my opinion, but some commonly repeated statements confuse, rather than clarify.  Here are a couple of my “favorites.”

“The use of unmanned systems in combat will destroy the warrior ethos.”

I’m sure you’ve heard this.  “They’re cowards, these so-called ‘soldiers’ who strike from afar. A real man confronts his enemy face-to-face. These new weapons should be banned.”

Of course, this quote is from a French nobleman talking the English archers and their long bows.  The whole argument about the unmanliness of “death from afar” probably started the first time someone threw a rock. This line of reasoning ignores the fact that war isn’t about building soldierly virtues; it’s about winning (or to paraphrase Patton, “Making the other guy die for his country”). Read more

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Interoperable First for AMREL Robot Payload Controller

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AMREL releases the first Payload Controller that uses swappable, field-expedient Radio Control Modules (RCMs).  Radio components are integrated into the RCM, which fit into AMREL’s revolutionary swappable device bays.  RCMs can be easily switched in and out by ordinary personnel, enabling it to easily change applications.

Developed under AMREL’s Flexpedient® Technology, RCMs were first used in AMREL OCU solutions.  RCMs enabled AMREL to be the first company to produce an OCU solution that could control heterogeneous unmanned systems – even when they have diverse operating systems and different origins of manufacture. Read more

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Libyan system integration video

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An IEEE Spectrum article features an Al Jazeera video (see below) about Libyan rebels making their own weapons.  The rebels transform a child’s toy into a weaponized UGV, prompting IEEE to conclude that “Anyone can (on principle, at least) build a robot, and given the need or the motivation, anyone can put a gun on one…”

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Communication & Other Unmanned Civilian Applications Challenges

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Officer.com recently ran an introductory article about Public Safety using what in the Defense world are referred to as Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TUAV).  No runway needed describes various applications, which for the most part, are the civilian equivalent of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR).

Experts are repeatedly quoted that the technology not only exists for Public Safety applications, but also is extremely mature.  The two main challenges are delivering solutions that are economical enough for cash-strapped civilian agencies, and, of course, FAA regulatory fears about mid-air collisions. Read more

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Robot Renaissance: Is Money Enough?

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TrobotMoneyhere’s nothing quite like the prospect of a half of a billion dollars to get the blood pumping, the brain scheming, and the pundits pontificating. The President’s ambitious Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), which includes $70 million for robots, may not revive the American manufacturing sector, but it certainly has provided fodder for the technology media. Read more

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Don’t believe the bunny: Power & Unmanned Systems

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Despite the ad with the drumming bunny, batteries in unmanned systems do not last forever. In fact the performing rabbit robot’s power lasts only three to four minutes.Robot power

Battlefield robots do better (a typical UGV batteries may last about 2 hours), but power is a huge challenge. This seems counter-intuitive, since one of the main advantages of unmanned systems is that, by definition, they don’t have to lug around people. However, mobility is only one source of power consumption. Communications and cooling systems may actually be more of a drain than simple transport. Read more

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