August 18, 2007
Tiny robots could help urban ops
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking...to develop small, autonomous ground robots that can act as mobile radio relay nodes during urban operations...The program, named LANdroid, envisions a fleet of robots that soldiers (~or police) can deploy in a city as they move through houses and streets. The idea, DARPA said, is to have these drones form a network capable of relaying radio traffic in a setting often considered challenging for communications equipment.
According to a sketch of a LANdroid included in a DARPA pamphlet, each robot will be about the size of a deck of cards. They must be rugged, lightweight and able to operate for seven to 14 days..
The drones.. must be inexpensive – about $100 each – so soldiers need not put themselves in danger to retrieve them.
press release | Defense Systems
[photo via google\ not from above
may not be the landroid envisioned by DARPA]
~How about robots as big as high-rise buildings? Robots as large as all downtown? Who says robots have to move?
Posted by Stubbornson at August 18, 2007 03:32 PM