Friday, January 03, 2014

US Military Orders Hundreds of Bots


The Pentagon has ordered hundreds more FirstLook robots, a 5.2-pound, lightweight transportable robot equipped with cameras, sensors and an ability to share or mesh images with other robots in the vicinity, iRobot officials said.

FirstLook is engineered with visible cameras, long-wave infrared sensors and thermal cameras – all designed to gather and beam back images and video of nearby terrain such as buildings, caves or any potential IED or hazardous location, said Mark Belanger, director of iRobot’s robotic products.

Most of the roughly 500 FirstLook robots delivered to the U.S. military have been sent to Afghanistan, he said. The small size of the robot is designed, among other things, to better enable movement for dismounted infantry units carrying a lot of gear. FirstLook can travel at speeds of 3.8 MPH and has a small manipulator arm that can pick up 2 and ½ pounds of C4 explosive material, Belanger added.

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