Thursday, June 28, 2012

U.S Army To Acquire 1,000 Tiny, Throwable Robots


      The U.S Army has awarded ReconRobotics, Inc. a $13.9 million contract for the supply of 1,000 miniature, throwable, mobile robots to the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.

      The U.S. Military is acquiring the micro-robots to provide four- and five-man fire teams with immediate tactical reconnaissance during urban warfare operations, surveillance missions and counter-IED efforts. ReconRobotics has already received and begun delivering the first order under this contract for 84 robots.

      The military class robots were created by the company in 2007 when they introduced the throwable 1.2-lb (540g) Recon Scout micro-robot.

      "For several years, our micro-robot systems have played a key role in protecting the lives of our soldiers and Marines as they conduct operations in active combat theatres,” said Ernest Langdon, Director of Military Programs for ReconRobotics. "We are honored that the Rapid Equipping Force has once again selected ReconRobotics to deliver this unique capability to those warfighters at the tip of the spear".

      Extremely small and easy to deploy some 4,600 Recon Scout micro-robots are deployed or under contract, worldwide. They can be thrown up to 120 feet (36m) or lowered into crawl spaces or caves to search for weapons caches and other hidden threats. On June 8, ReconRobotics introduced the Throwbot XT, a new generation micro-robot that provides both audio eavesdropping capabilities and video reconnaissance to U.S. troops. The Throwbot XT also has an automatic, infrared optical system that gives the warfighter clear, crisp video even in total darkness.

      Nearly 500 police and security agencies, including the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshals, also use Recon Scout robots for tactical reconnaissance in high-risk operations, as do many allied military and police forces, worldwide. 
 
Source :http://www.defenseworld.net 

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