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iRobot To Create Revolutionary New Robot For DARPA
by Staff Writers Bedford, MA (SPX) Jun 23, 2008 iRobot has announced the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Office have awarded the company a new multi-year, multi-million dollar R and D project to develop Chemical Robots (ChemBots). The goal of this program is to develop a soft, flexible, mobile robot that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than its actual structural dimensions to perform Department of Defense (DoD) tasks within complex and highly cluttered environments. As the established leader in innovative robotics research and development, iRobot will lead a team composed of leading technical experts from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to incorporate advances in chemistry, materials science, actuator technologies, electronics, sensors and fabrication techniques into ChemBots engineering. The resulting revolutionary new robot platform designs will expand the capabilities of robots in urban search and rescue, as well as reconnaissance missions. "During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space. Unmanned platforms such as mechanical robots are of limited effectiveness if the only available points of entry are small openings," said, Mitchell Zakin, Ph.D., program manager, DARPA. "We believe that a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable in many missions." "Consistently developing new approaches to solve warfighter challenges with robots has made us a trusted DARPA partner," said Helen Greiner, co-founder and chairman of iRobot. "Through this program, robots that reconstitute size, shape and functionality after traversal through complex environments will transcend the pages of science fiction to become real tools for soldiers in theatre." Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links iRobot The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com
Sensor Technologies Conferences To Be Held In Wales
Cardiff, UK (SPX) Jun 20, 2008Optoelectronics-rich Wales will provide a fitting setting for the co-located SPIE Europe Remote Sensing and SPIE Europe Security and Defence conferences to be held in Cardiff 15-18 September. |
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