Mary-Louise Hoffman
The U.S. Marine Corps is examining land-based robotic technologies in order to help infantry soldiers with their patrolling, explosive disposal and combat missions, Defense Systems reported Tuesday.
David Walsh writes the military service is working to modify a QinetiQ North America-designed unmanned ground vehicle as part of the branch’s Combat Robotics System development program.
“We started CRS to understand how the dynamics of man-machine interactions would work,†Capt. James Piniero, a robotics project lead at the Marine Warfighting Lab told Defense Systems.
QinetiQ NA’s Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System is equipped with day and night cameras, a hostile fire detection technology and a high-intensity siren speaker and is designed to carry machine guns, laser dazzlers or grenade launchers.
The Marine Warfighting Lab also launched a project to produce an 800-pound tracked vehicle that can be configured to support multiple missions, according to the publication
Walsh reports the Robotic Vehicle-Modular initiative is meant to utilize a platform from Polaris Defense and TORC Robotics.
The Marine Corps is also testing information exchange between robots under the Unmanned Tactical Autonomous Control and Collaboration program.
“If one identified a target it can pass it to another of the same or different type … for them to have a shared awareness of the battlespace,” Piniero told the publication.
