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| URCV 'Gladiator' Makes It's Debut | |
| 2005-08-10 | |
| It could have been the Iraqi desert with the burning sun and dusty blue sky. The "Gladiator," an unmanned remote-controlled vehicle, makes its way over a dirt obstacle yesterday as a crowd observes. Carnegie Mellon and BAE Systems held a public demonstration of the robot, developed for the Marine Corps. But instead of sand, it was a tidy asphalt surface in Uniontown yesterday, where a military-green robot resembling a large all-terrain vehicle climbed and tumbled over makeshift stacks of wood planks and piles of stone-filled dirt, preening before a crowd uttering "ohs" and "ahs". Known as the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (TUGV), the six-wheeled combat robot spun around in circles displaying its strength and durability at what could have been its coming-out party-- the first public demonstration of the prototype designed and developed at Carnegie Mellon University and set to be built and manufactured at BAE Systems' Ground Vehicle Unit plant in Fayette County. In February, CMU beat out defense giant Lockheed Martin for a $26.4 million Defense Department contract to produce a line of six Gladiator TUGV prototypes. The goal is to build big remote-controlled reconnaissance robots capable of carrying out search-and-discovery missions in potentially hostile areas, to warn soldiers of the dangers ahead, and to protect them from mine fields, craters, trenches, hidden enemies or even greater threats such as chemical, biological or nuclear traps. Eventually, the military hopes to arm the remote-controlled TUGVs with machine guns and other weapons, giving them the capacity to destroy enemy targets.
"Remote combat task is to accomplish the mission and save friendly lives," Griffen told a crowd of BAE employees, politicians, CMU researchers, staff and reporters on hand for yesterday's demonstration. "We're going to do that with the Gladiator." Although the vehicle, weighing nearly 3 tons, is large enough for combat, it appears remarkably friendly, looking and acting like an oversized remote-controlled toy. Designed to fit into a military Humvee for transport, the Gladiator will be driven remotely by a soldier using a Sony PlayStation-like joystick. The soldier will wear a special helmet fitted with an eyepiece that serves as a camera, allowing the soldier to see what the robot sees, even though it could be miles away. The latest Gladiator prototype has containers for hand grenades that can be used for clearing obstacles and creating a footpath on difficult terrain for soldiers following behind. It also features what looks like organ pipes to produce smoke, and it has a mount on top for a medium-size machine gun or multipurpose assault weapon. The six prototypes, which will be tested under a variety of conditions before the Department of Defense orders up to 200 Gladiators, are the third stage of the robot's development process. A joint team of CMU researchers, consultants with military-experience and BAE engineers are now tweaking the Gladiator to a "bible-like" set of military requirements and expect to deliver the six prototypes to the Marine Corps by May 2007. "The Marines are a tough customer. They have continually pushed them to make it easier to use," said Randy Bryant, dean of CMU's School of Computer Science. Researchers at CMU's Robotics Institute and the National Robotics Engineering Consortium have been developing and fine-tuning the Gladiator since 2002, when several research teams and defense contractors began competing to present the Department of Defense with a specialized robotic vehicle to venture into unknown territory on battlefields and deliver real-time pictures to soldiers. CMU began working with BAE in the most recent phase of the project -- needing an experienced defense contractor to build and manufacture the Gladiator. Yesterday's demonstration was to showcase not just the the first unmanned ground vehicle used for reconnaissance, but also to highlight the region's economic-development success in winning a big military contract. "We wanted to show the public what we were doing," said BAE spokesman Herb Muktarian, who noted that most of the 150 employees in the company's Fayette County plant are not yet working on the Gladiator but refurbishing Bradley combat vehicles. Amazingly enough, the Pentagon wants 1/3rd of its combat vehicles to be unmanned robots by 2010. | |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 #3 raj LOL |
| Posted by: hey mo 2005-08-10 16:37 |
| #7 that's cause the bean counters have figured all the savings from not paying retirement or veterans medical benefits Yeah, that *must* be the reason. It's certainly not because a robot is a force multiplier that enables sensors and weapons to be deployed in high-risk situations without risking soldier's lives. Personally, I think this is great because we are one step closer to unleashing Giant Killer Robots. Woo woo! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-08-10 16:25 |
| #6 Amazingly enough, the Pentagon wants 1/3rd of its combat vehicles to be unmanned robots by 2010. Yeah, that's cause the bean counters have figured all the savings from not paying retirement or veterans medical benefits that'll be saved. BTW, didn't someone mention Skynet? :) |
| Posted by: Thinemble Hupomotch7256 2005-08-10 14:55 |
| #5 BAE engineers are now tweaking the Gladiator to a "bible-like" set The project is doomed with the use of the word bible. The Left will soon product a sequel to the movie "Stealth" (which bombed at the box office too). |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-10 11:08 |
| #4 Does anyone have a link to video of recent UAV take-out of Jihadi mortar team in Iraq? |
| Posted by: Ward C the Moron 2005-08-10 11:06 |
| #3 I wonder when it's gonna find Sarah Connor? |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-08-10 10:30 |
| #2 It's important to remember that any such vehicle is interwoven into a much greater whole. To start with, its operator probably can multitask on his PDA, so he can also see the terrain ahead, live pics from any UAVs about, and has lots of other information readily available, such as from sensors and other users. Second, the armored vehicle itself might be interconnect to other such vehicles, like Strykers, giving it coordinated fires. Third, there might be an overall commander directing the mass movement remotely (leaving the actual maneuver to users), and coordinating between different military units to produce a cohesive robotic front lines. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-10 10:14 |
| #1 I wonder does this vehicle need a link to an air vehicle to operate? I wonder what it's degree of autonomy is if the link is shut off? I wonder how they protect the location of the transmitter? |
| Posted by: Ulereger Clavigum6227 2005-08-10 06:52 |