A soldier's robotic response to Kandahar's deadly threat

[Thompson_JM]

Brilliant!

I love the use of a Playstation 2 Controller... young folk would probably have very little trouble adapting to using it! 

 

[392]

While in theatre, I had the opportunity to set up some training to see if this little ROV would be effective in what it was designed for. It is definitely a neat piece of kit, and a great use of his university skills to help with a very dangerous threat.

That being said, I think there are some misconceptions in this thread about this being used to replace soldiers conducting searches. Without getting into a heated debate or SOPs, nothing replaces the Mk 1 eyeball to visually check areas being VPS'd and even though it sucks, this ROV would have been a tool in the proverbial "toolbox" to aid - but not replace - soldiers conducting searches.

Before the dogpiling starts and the "how the **** do you know" bit kicks in, I reference the number of incidents that happen almost daily in-theatre where areas are physically searched and declared clear, but something was found immediately after. Speaking as someone who has the good fortune to have an ROV in my permanent toolbox, and understands without a doubt what an outstanding tool it is, I can count on one hand how many times I didn't find something on the X that was different from what I saw in the screen before I went downrange.

We're not at the point technology-wise yet to completely take the soldier out of the search, but from what I saw while in theatre, this Spr's initiative and outside-the-box thinking may just have been the push to get things rolling in that direction  :2c:


Edit for wording.

 

[muskrat89]

I think there are some serious misconceptions in this thread about this being used to replace soldiers conducting searches.

Where do you get that? I went back through and most of the comments are congratulatory in nature. I didn't read anyone prattling on about replacing troops with gizmos    ???

 

[392]

Where do you get that? I went back through and most of the comments are congratulatory in nature. I didn't read anyone prattling on about replacing troops with gizmos    ???

There were several comments, including from Spr Engler himself, of using his ROV instead of soldiers. I'm not dinging the well-deserved congratulatory posts, but rather providing some insight. Something I didn't mention, but the comments in theatre about this machine being mass produced and replacing boots on the ground searching also contributed to my post.

 

[MPwannabe]

Initiative like this saves lives. This is a great story, and congratulations are in order for a spot-on soldier.

 

[chrisf]

What's frightening is the price we'd pay for somthing like this if you bought it from private industry.... and the price we pay for any sort of ROV (land, air or sea), when the technology to build somthing like this has become so common and cheap (I particularly like the use of the video game controller, I've seen it done a few times already... they're quite durable and somone else has already spent a fortune making them ergonomic)

If we were really smart, and I mean really smart, we (the forces) would make a shopping list of ROVs we wanted, write clear specs for them, and rather then put it to tender, make a public competition out of it. Put up cash prizes for all the winning designs, open it to any group or individual in Canada (There's already a variety of robotics competitions, with the same thing, a written spec, and various schools/groups/individuals build robots to that spec and compete) , put the ROVs through the proving process as part of the "competition" film the whole thing, and when we're done, hand it over to the discovery channel/OLN/any network that will take it, free of charge, as a three season television series.

The end result would be:

- Inovative & cheap new designs
- Fantastic public relations

 

[Pieman]

There were several comments, including from Spr Engler himself, of using his ROV instead of soldiers.

I don't think anyone was trying to say the technology was to replace soldiers searching. The concept of the platform was not only examined for use with Combat Engineers, but numerous other applications.

 

[Pieman]

Again for those interested this is the Prairie Dog II, a significantly more advanced version of the original. It is a fair bit larger (1.5 feet wide, 2 feet long) with GPS, Acceleratometer, Gyroscope, comapass, 3D mapping (Xbox Kinect Sensor). Has essential AI capabilities including obstacle avoidance, GPS waypoint following, Object recognition and tracking. The Kinect sensor allows for human skeleton tracking which allows for human tracking, human gesture commands. The voice capabilities of Kinect allow for voice commands, and through some additional sensors: sound localization.

This is a second prototype, hence the boxy looking structure. A manufactured version is on the board for sometime early next year.

The new chassis allows for tremendous ground clearance, and terrain capabilities. It is based upon the combination of a lunar rover, and a type of Australian tractor.

It has moved from a military application (sadly) to a research/testing platform with private security, remote sensing, and mining applications in mind. Cost to build was about 3K.

 

[Pieman]

A couple videos of new platform. One is of the robot moving through building and second is on board cameras and sensors. Can see what the on board computer sees. Indoor navigation is a whole different can of worms.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2IxxW2S33I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIEz2sDGco&feature=related

Enjoy!

 

[Pieman]

A couple more videos here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr_aqi-DicQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e4lYzTK6Mo&feature=related