thedrifter
08-19-07, 05:15 PM
Bomb-detecting robots on fast track
Corps, Army hope to field 1,000 unmanned vehicles by year’s end
By Kris Osborn - kosborn@militarytimes.com
Posted : August 27, 2007
Responding to a joint urgent operational needs statement from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army and Marine Corps have launched a whirlwind competition to buy and field up to 1,000 new bomb-detecting robots by the end of the year, with deliveries to start in September.
The competition for the XBot began with a July 17 solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site for a proven, remote-controlled robot weighing no more than 50 pounds and operator control unit weighing less than 20 pounds.
Robot makers competed at a “drive-off” Aug. 13-15 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., to determine the winner. Remotely operated unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, were tested rigorously on a predetermined course, with operators required to guide the vehicles over rocks and uneven terrain and through water to detect obstacles under vehicles and to test communications.
The winner will be named Sept. 14 and awarded a contract calling for 101 robots, the first of which must be delivered within 10 days.
By the end of the year, up to 1,000 new robots are to enter service with the aim of bringing the total in combat up to 5,000 by the end of the year, said Lira Frye, spokeswoman for U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone.
Because the request from U.S. Multi-National Corps-Iraq was urgent, the procurement process is moving unusually fast, Army and industry officials said.
“There has been a perceptible increase in the speed with which the Army acquires essential equipment,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
The Pentagon’s Robotic Systems Joint Project Office, formed in 2004 to manage burgeoning robot needs, is spearheading the program. The office drafted an ambitious timetable for the new robots, condensing the entire acquisition process — from the joint urgent operational needs statement to testing, bids, contract awards and deployment — to a mere two months.
The Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) will oversee procurement.
the Redstone test was taking place in advance of formal bids. Instead of a complex process to become a competitor, contestants were able to register when they arrived with their wares at Redstone.
After the first year’s demand, the contract calls for up to 3,000 more to be delivered over a maximum of five years.
Frye said the payoff to expedited fielding of increased numbers of robots is obvious.
“In 2006, U.S. military robots performed more than 11,000 missions, with thousands of lives saved,” Frye said. “Any time you can send a robot downrange instead of a human, you are potentially saving lives.”
Life savers
The contract, one of the largest ever for UGVs, has attracted the attention of industry players specializing in lightweight robots with combat experience. iRobot and Exponent have confirmed their intentions to pursue the award.
Also participating is Worth, Ill.-based Robotic Fx, maker of the 20-pound Negotiator Tactical Surveillance Robot now serving with state, local and federal law enforcement agencies.
Exponent, of Menlo Park, Calif., builds the MARCbot, a 25-pound reconnaissance robot that has been used in Iraq to detect improvised explosive devices since April 2004.
The MARCbot was developed as a low-cost, bomb-detecting robot for the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force in 2004.
At a cost of less than $10,000 each, the battery-powered robot has a low-light camera, allowing nighttime operations.
“Soldiers were walking up to suspected IEDs and kicking their feet at it. We developed some rough prototypes, but even the rough prototypes were able to determine the presence of IEDs,” said Bill Cohen, MARC-bot’s principal engineer for Exponent, who works in Baghdad with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.
The company has produced nearly 1,000 of the series.
“People come up to me and say, ‘You know what, your robot saved my life last night,’” Cohen said.
iRobot, of Burlington, Mass., makes the PackBot, the most numerous combat robot, with more than 1,000 now serving with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In July alone, iRobot was awarded two contracts totaling $17.5 million. PEO STRI ordered 14 PackBots with the ICx Fido Kit and five PackBot Explosive Ordnance Disposal robots for $8.6 million, while Naval Sea Systems Command ordered 60 PackBot Man Transportable Robot Systems for $8.9 million for joint-service EOD.
“The good thing about the PackBot is that it is a capability that is fully rugged,” said Jim Rymarcsuk, iRobot’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Gaining popularity
Depending on the variant, PackBots cost from $80,000 to $150,000 a piece. Their popularity has propelled military sales from $95 million in 2004 to $142 million in 2006.
U.S. troops have been sending PackBots into caves, buildings and other high-risk areas to search for enemies, intruders and explosives.
The robot can be programmed to perform other functions. “It has a full computer on board,” Rymarcsuk said. “With software downloads, you can add capa-bility.”
Aside from the PackBot, iRobot is considering bringing into the competition a robot similar to its Small UGV early, and a version of it is being developed by the Army’s Future Combat Systems program.
With smaller 18- to 20-inch arms and high-performance infrared cameras, the 30-pound SUGV is designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
“The SUGV is being developed with the same basic digital architecture that is the PackBot, so we expect to be able to add all of the different mission capabilities,” said Bob Bell, iRobot’s SUGV program director. “It will look at and pull the cover off an IED.”
Foster-Miller of Waltham, Mass., a part of QinetiQ, was expected to propose a lightweight TALON robot, heavier versions of which are now performing reconnaissance missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Foster-Miller officials said.
Although most of its IED-detecting surveillance robots weigh 115 to 140 pounds — too heavy for the joint project office’s 50-pound requirement — Foster-Miller is pursuing design changes to field a vehicle small enough to qualify for the competition, company officials said.
“Prior to this solicitation, we did not have a 30- to 50-pound robot,” Foster-Miller Vice President Bob Quinn said.
Eyes around corners
In a move to support the surge, the joint project office on Aug. 8 placed a $51.5 million order for 250 more TALON robots for combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The order was a response to service members in theater, Quinn said. TALON robots cost roughly $110,000 each.
“This X-bot solicitation is for infantry to get eyes around corners,” Quinn said. “Thirty-five- to 50-pound robots are good for observation, but for neutralization, which includes detonating explosives, heavier robots are often preferred.”
At the smaller end of the scale is the Dragon Runner, a 9-pound robot with ground sensors developed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and Carnegie Mellon University.
The 15-by-11-inch unit uses audio and video sensors to beam images back to troops and is tailored for urban combat. It can be driven at 45 mph and survive being thrown out of a three-story window, according to its makers’ Web site.
The robot’s electronics were developed by Automatika, which was bought by Foster-Miller.
Ellie
Corps, Army hope to field 1,000 unmanned vehicles by year’s end
By Kris Osborn - kosborn@militarytimes.com
Posted : August 27, 2007
Responding to a joint urgent operational needs statement from Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army and Marine Corps have launched a whirlwind competition to buy and field up to 1,000 new bomb-detecting robots by the end of the year, with deliveries to start in September.
The competition for the XBot began with a July 17 solicitation on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site for a proven, remote-controlled robot weighing no more than 50 pounds and operator control unit weighing less than 20 pounds.
Robot makers competed at a “drive-off” Aug. 13-15 at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., to determine the winner. Remotely operated unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, were tested rigorously on a predetermined course, with operators required to guide the vehicles over rocks and uneven terrain and through water to detect obstacles under vehicles and to test communications.
The winner will be named Sept. 14 and awarded a contract calling for 101 robots, the first of which must be delivered within 10 days.
By the end of the year, up to 1,000 new robots are to enter service with the aim of bringing the total in combat up to 5,000 by the end of the year, said Lira Frye, spokeswoman for U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone.
Because the request from U.S. Multi-National Corps-Iraq was urgent, the procurement process is moving unusually fast, Army and industry officials said.
“There has been a perceptible increase in the speed with which the Army acquires essential equipment,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute.
The Pentagon’s Robotic Systems Joint Project Office, formed in 2004 to manage burgeoning robot needs, is spearheading the program. The office drafted an ambitious timetable for the new robots, condensing the entire acquisition process — from the joint urgent operational needs statement to testing, bids, contract awards and deployment — to a mere two months.
The Army’s Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO STRI) will oversee procurement.
the Redstone test was taking place in advance of formal bids. Instead of a complex process to become a competitor, contestants were able to register when they arrived with their wares at Redstone.
After the first year’s demand, the contract calls for up to 3,000 more to be delivered over a maximum of five years.
Frye said the payoff to expedited fielding of increased numbers of robots is obvious.
“In 2006, U.S. military robots performed more than 11,000 missions, with thousands of lives saved,” Frye said. “Any time you can send a robot downrange instead of a human, you are potentially saving lives.”
Life savers
The contract, one of the largest ever for UGVs, has attracted the attention of industry players specializing in lightweight robots with combat experience. iRobot and Exponent have confirmed their intentions to pursue the award.
Also participating is Worth, Ill.-based Robotic Fx, maker of the 20-pound Negotiator Tactical Surveillance Robot now serving with state, local and federal law enforcement agencies.
Exponent, of Menlo Park, Calif., builds the MARCbot, a 25-pound reconnaissance robot that has been used in Iraq to detect improvised explosive devices since April 2004.
The MARCbot was developed as a low-cost, bomb-detecting robot for the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force in 2004.
At a cost of less than $10,000 each, the battery-powered robot has a low-light camera, allowing nighttime operations.
“Soldiers were walking up to suspected IEDs and kicking their feet at it. We developed some rough prototypes, but even the rough prototypes were able to determine the presence of IEDs,” said Bill Cohen, MARC-bot’s principal engineer for Exponent, who works in Baghdad with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.
The company has produced nearly 1,000 of the series.
“People come up to me and say, ‘You know what, your robot saved my life last night,’” Cohen said.
iRobot, of Burlington, Mass., makes the PackBot, the most numerous combat robot, with more than 1,000 now serving with troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In July alone, iRobot was awarded two contracts totaling $17.5 million. PEO STRI ordered 14 PackBots with the ICx Fido Kit and five PackBot Explosive Ordnance Disposal robots for $8.6 million, while Naval Sea Systems Command ordered 60 PackBot Man Transportable Robot Systems for $8.9 million for joint-service EOD.
“The good thing about the PackBot is that it is a capability that is fully rugged,” said Jim Rymarcsuk, iRobot’s vice president of sales and marketing.
Gaining popularity
Depending on the variant, PackBots cost from $80,000 to $150,000 a piece. Their popularity has propelled military sales from $95 million in 2004 to $142 million in 2006.
U.S. troops have been sending PackBots into caves, buildings and other high-risk areas to search for enemies, intruders and explosives.
The robot can be programmed to perform other functions. “It has a full computer on board,” Rymarcsuk said. “With software downloads, you can add capa-bility.”
Aside from the PackBot, iRobot is considering bringing into the competition a robot similar to its Small UGV early, and a version of it is being developed by the Army’s Future Combat Systems program.
With smaller 18- to 20-inch arms and high-performance infrared cameras, the 30-pound SUGV is designed for surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
“The SUGV is being developed with the same basic digital architecture that is the PackBot, so we expect to be able to add all of the different mission capabilities,” said Bob Bell, iRobot’s SUGV program director. “It will look at and pull the cover off an IED.”
Foster-Miller of Waltham, Mass., a part of QinetiQ, was expected to propose a lightweight TALON robot, heavier versions of which are now performing reconnaissance missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Foster-Miller officials said.
Although most of its IED-detecting surveillance robots weigh 115 to 140 pounds — too heavy for the joint project office’s 50-pound requirement — Foster-Miller is pursuing design changes to field a vehicle small enough to qualify for the competition, company officials said.
“Prior to this solicitation, we did not have a 30- to 50-pound robot,” Foster-Miller Vice President Bob Quinn said.
Eyes around corners
In a move to support the surge, the joint project office on Aug. 8 placed a $51.5 million order for 250 more TALON robots for combat engineers and explosive ordnance disposal technicians serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The order was a response to service members in theater, Quinn said. TALON robots cost roughly $110,000 each.
“This X-bot solicitation is for infantry to get eyes around corners,” Quinn said. “Thirty-five- to 50-pound robots are good for observation, but for neutralization, which includes detonating explosives, heavier robots are often preferred.”
At the smaller end of the scale is the Dragon Runner, a 9-pound robot with ground sensors developed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and Carnegie Mellon University.
The 15-by-11-inch unit uses audio and video sensors to beam images back to troops and is tailored for urban combat. It can be driven at 45 mph and survive being thrown out of a three-story window, according to its makers’ Web site.
The robot’s electronics were developed by Automatika, which was bought by Foster-Miller.
Ellie