Beyond Big Dog: The US Army Searches for an Infantry Squadbot
The Titan unmanned ground vehicle by Milrem and QinetiQ North America
By Patrick Tucker Read bio
October 3, 2016
Service officials have a concept of operations and a plan to deploy a cargo-carrying robot alongside dismounted soldiers in 2019. But can the acquisition system keep up?
Robot makers from around the world are in Washington, D.C., this week to answer the U.S. Army’s call for machines that can roll alongside a dismounted squad to carry gear, watch the flank, or possibly even wield a machine gun. But one manufacturer says that unless the service fixes the way it supplies the infantry with technology, it’ll never catch up to the commercial sector.
Army officials, who call their prospective cargo robot the Squad Multi-Purpose Equipment Transport, want it to keep up with soldiers on foot for 72 hours without refueling; and to operate autonomously, semi-autonomously (think waypoint navigation or wireless leader-follower), and by remote control. They are already testing early prototypes and hope to deploy the new robot in 2019.
http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2016/10/army-robots/132030/?oref=d-skybox
