The makers of the cuter-than-cute robotic vacuum cleaner are rolling out a new machine: A big, fast-moving, semi-autonomous ‘bot capable of killing a whole bunch of people at once.
Early versions of the iRobot Warrior X700 “are slated to be ready by the second half of next year,” according to Army Times’ Kris Osborn. And unlike previous offerings from iRobot — which tended to be on the light, bordering-on-flimsy side — the Warrior will weigh up to 250 pounds. It’ll be able to lug a 500-pound payload, and carry 150 pounds with a newly muscular arm. Which will mean the machine is more than buff enough to pack heat.
“We’re looking at urban warfare… It can be deploying weapons systems. It can be doing re-supply operations, taking ammo or water to troops who are pinned down, perimeter security and building clearing,” Helen Greiner, iRobot chairman and co-founder, tells Army Times.
“Right now, it can go 10 miles per hour. When we finish the development, it will be able to do a four-minute mile,” said retired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Joe Dyer, iRobot’s president of the government and industrial division. “You are starting to see the first robot that can really haul your pack and be not only a partner but be a stronger and faster partner.”
Unlike other armed robots — which are entirely remote-controlled — the Warriors are “being engineered with advanced software, giving them the ability to perform some battlefield functions autonomously.”
“The software says, ‘Hey, robot, get back up yourself.’ If you lose [communications], right now you have to go get the robot,” Dyer said. “A capability they are building into PackBot is if you lose comms, go back to where you could talk last and re-establish comms on your own.”
At the same time, a key dimension to the Warrior X700 is its ability to protect soldiers by firing weapons such as a machine gun or 40mm explosive round.
“The Warrior has the stability and the engineering to be a weapons platform,” Dyer said. One Warrior variant is outfitted with an electronic firing system with four small barrels able to shoot as many as 16 rounds a second when firing simultaneously. The robot-mounted weapons shoot as far as 800 meters, according to officials at Metal Storm, the Brisbane, Australia-based company that makes the firing system.
“We have an inducted firing system which electronically creates an electric field that ignites the primer or the sensor,” a Metal Storm official said. “What it means is it is totally electronic. There are no moving parts apart from the rounds themselves. They can be sealed so it is resistant to weather conditions.”
Being fully electronic, it marries in well with a robotic platform and an electronic fire control, the official said.
“What we are focusing on at the moment is 40mm, so we’re dealing with high-explosive grenades or air-burst rounds. We also have less-than-lethal rounds and [improvised explosive device] disruptor rounds,” he said.
Recently, iRobot competitor Foster-Miller already has three armed robots in Iraq. The company unveiled a new, tougher model last week. iRobot has other armed offerings, too. The bot-makers already teamed with up Taser International to build a stun gun-equipped robot.
Credit: Wired.com
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