iRobot unveils larger Warrior, eyes 4-minute mile

[CommunityEditor]

iRobot has unveiled a 250-pound, weapons-firing, stair-climbing, ammo-carrying military robot that will one day run a four-minute mile, iRobot developers said.

Early versions of the multimission iRobot Warrior X700, the latest offering from the Burlington, Mass.-based robot makers, are slated to be ready by the second half of next year.

“It is the largest vehicle that can still go into a building. We’re looking at urban warfare and going into lots of different types of buildings with it,” said Helen Greiner, iRobot chairman and co-founder. “We really think of it as a multimission platform. It can be deploying weapons systems. It can be doing re-supply operations, taking ammo or water to troops who are pinned down, perimeter security and building clearing.”

Configured with tracks similar to its smaller predecessor, the iRobot PackBot, the heavier Warrior can carry a 500-pound payload and use its robotic arm to lift 150 pounds.

“Right now, it can go 10 miles per hour. When we finish the development, it will be able to do a four-minute mile,” said retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Joe Dyer, iRobot’s president of the government and industrial division. “You are starting to see the first robot that can really haul your pack and be not only a partner but be a stronger and faster partner.”

In addition to being ruggedized for carrying supplies, the Warrior and PackBot are being engineered with advanced software, giving them the ability to perform some battlefield functions autonomously.

“The software says, ‘Hey, robot, get back up yourself.’ If you lose [communications], right now you have to go get the robot,” Dyer said. “A capability they are building into PackBot is if you lose comms, go back to where you could talk last and re-establish comms on your own.”

At the same time, a key dimension to the Warrior X700 is its ability to protect soldiers by firing weapons such as a machine gun or 40mm explosive round.

One Warrior variant is outfitted with an electronic firing system with four small barrels able to shoot as many as 16 rounds a second when firing simultaneously. The robot-mounted weapons shoot as far as 800 meters, according to officials at Metal Storm, the Brisbane, Australia-based company that makes the firing system.

“We have an inducted firing system which electronically creates an electric field that ignites the primer or the sensor,” a Metal Storm official said. “What it means is it is totally electronic. There are no moving parts apart from the rounds themselves. They can be sealed so it is resistant to weather conditions.”

Being fully electronic, it marries in well with a robotic platform and an electronic fire control, the official said.
“What we are focusing on at the moment is 40mm, so we’re dealing with high-explosive grenades or air-burst rounds. We also have less-than-lethal rounds and [improvised explosive device] disruptor rounds,” he said.

Article: http://www.armytimes.com/news/ausa/story.php?F=3101901