In this article: >>What’s in a name?
>>Resilience and repairs
>>Cutting Edge Robotics
>>Weighing the cost

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Explosive ordnance disposal is a dangerous task for anyone to undertake, but new robots are giving servicemembers more capability and control while keeping them out of harm’s way.

It was a worst-case scenario for Spc. Doug “Dusty” Rhodes one bloody day in Vietnam. Vietcong snipers were targeting Rhodes and two fellow soldiers, one of whom was standing on a land mine while the other was attempting to place a pin in the device to keep it from exploding. Rhodes, who later was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism, ran to an open area and drew fire while the device was disarmed. Thankfully, all three men escaped.

Fast-forward more than three decades. Today’s servicemembers, stationed in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, are no less heroic, but the 21st century explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) devices working for them do the dual duties of both drawing fire and disarming explosive devices — all without exposing humans to the dangers faced in previous wars by Rhodes and many others.

No doubt about it: “Robots in Iraq save lives,” says Sgt. 1st Class Jeff Sarver, USA, who has trained with and deployed EOD robots in Iraq, Bosnia, Korea, and the United States. “The most impressive thing I’ve seen a robot do was to unzip a suicide vest [on] a suicide bomber and then take the vest off.” Sarver, who recently returned from service abroad and is stationed at Fort McCoy, Wis., describes the kind of multitasking “buddy” that will take the bullet for you, every time — and defuse a bomb with one (mechanical) arm tied behind its back.

What’s in a name?

Their names are exotic and playful — PackBot, mini-ANDROS II, Wolverine, ODIS, SWORDS — but they’re all business. This robotic corps can wade through a foot of sewer water, climb stairs and rubble, find and defuse old ordnance, and even identify a “false exhaust” in the undercarriage of a terrorist’s car. They can ferret out and neutralize biohazards, radiation, and explosive devices hidden in buildings, holes in the ground, wet concrete, and even in a pile of corpses. Here’s a rundown of the versatile capabilities of some of the robotic EOD devices currently in use by U.S. armed forces in military hot spots overseas.

The PackBot, manufactured by iRobot, weighs less than 24 kilograms and, once off-loaded from its backpack, can be deployed in less than two minutes. It can worm its way into sewers and other dangerous and constricted spaces covered with anything from slick tile to gooey mud. With eight interchangeable payload modules, it senses chemical and biological hazards, detects mines, deploys ground-penetrating radar, and reaches as far as 2 meters in any direction while providing eyes and ears for its remote operators.

The ANDROS line of robots, manufactured by REMOTEC (a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman), is as versatile as a circus family. The Mark V-A1, a heavy-duty vehicle with an articulated track, can climb 45-degree stairs and plow over obstacles as high as 2 feet. It has a manipulator arm, gripper, TV cameras, audio, and lights.

Its “little brothers,” the F6A and the Mini-ANDROS II, are scaled-down models that can get through tighter spaces, such as airplane aisles, and allow quick tool change-outs while still tackling tough terrains. The largest, strongest wheeled ANDROS is the Wolverine, an environmentally sealed unit that can operate in high temperatures and humidity to facilitate both remote viewing and delicate manipulation tasks. The more than 500 ANDROS Wheelbarrow units deployed in 40 countries have the ability to change center of gravity, neutralize land mines, and carry tools such as disruptors and equipment to detect explosive and chemical dangers. All the ANDROS vehicles can be controlled from a distance with the use of radio control, fiber optic cable reel, or portable cable reel.

Vanguard robots, such as the MKII, can slip under the bumper of a suspicious vehicle to inspect for the full range of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive threats. The MKII can fit in the trunk of a police car or deploy from a military airdrop. Its laptop computer-based command control unit responds to keystroke or joystick commands, and the robot boasts an articulated arm, Proparms disruptors, and night surveillance cameras. It also can convert from tracks to wheels in a matter of minutes.

The Omni-Directional Inspection System (ODIS), developed by the U.S. Tank-Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center in Warren, Mich., is a robot system for detecting explosive devices. Described as a “hovercraft on wheels,” ODIS can move forward, backward, right, and left and rotate its camera and lights separately or in combination. With ODIS’ help, even operators with minimal training can identify out-of-place wires or false exhaust pipes underneath a suspicious vehicle. To protect against suicide bombers, a camera mast system allows inspection from a distance and communicates with a “palm-computer-based translator system” to let ODIS interact with personnel to verify identifications and relay instructions to vehicle drivers.

Foster-Miller developed talon robots, which offer cutting-edge sensing ability for chemical, gas, radiation, and heat with readings that can be accessed simultaneously, remotely, and in real time by means of a single integrated hand-held display (think multiple windows). The transmitting unit sniffs out everything from gamma radiation to pepper spray and can detect 50 kinds of gas. The robot itself is man-portable and its unmatched speed can pace a running soldier. It can plow through snow and surf and isn’t daunted by concertina wire or rock piles. talon robots have completed more than 20,000 EOD missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Small mobile weapons system talon robots carry mounts for everything from shotguns, Barrett 50-caliber rifles, and M-240 machine guns to grenade launchers and M-202 anti-tank rocket systems. In fact, Time magazine recognized talon’s weaponized robot, Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System (SWORDS), as one of the most amazing inventions of 2004, with the warning, “Insurgents, be afraid.” Operators can stand up to 1,000 meters away to maneuver the units.

Resilience and repairs

With such large price tags — the typical ANDROS is more than $80,000, and TALON robots cost between $150,000 and $230,000 — you can bet repairs and spare parts for EOD robots are a big issue. A typical repairable robot will be able to complete more than 1,000 missions. In the Middle East, sand and oil are as much enemies to the machines as the bad guys are to U.S. soldiers, meriting the observation that one day’s work in Iraq for a robot is equal to a year’s worth stateside. Thus, parts salvage and quick repairs are priorities for Iraq’s Joint Robotic System Repair Station, which has seen robots return with little left but the tracks.

But they’re tough little ’bots. Foster-Miller, for instance, boasts that after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, its talon robotics units withstood twice-daily decontamination for 45 consecutive days without any electronics failing. One talon, the manufacturer claims, has been blown up three times but is back in combat with new arms, wiring, and cameras.

Another ’bot, riding on the roof of a Humvee that was crossing a bridge over a river in Iraq, was blown into the water. To the delight of its handler, its heavily damaged control unit still was able to direct the talon to drive itself out of the river and back to him. Now that’s maximizing resources.

Cutting Edge Robotics

Many new robotic devices are being developed for battlefield use. For instance, though the military currently uses unmanned surveillance airplanes operated by humans via remote control, DARPA is developing something more sophisticated. Its $4-billion, five-year Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems program aims to develop networked autonomous aircraft that can fly in formations and identify targets on which to drop bombs. Such devices will be impervious to human error caused by factors such as fatigue and G-force and capable of flying coordinated missions at up to 700 kilometers an hour.

Honeywell recently tested the Micro Air Vehicle, a DARPA project that operates via a ducted fan that has the engine and propeller inside a composite tube that serves as the flight surface, literally “sucking itself through the air,” according to Honeywell developers. With a two-cylinder gasoline engine, it can “hover and stare” in ways that fixed-wing devices cannot, allowing it to deploy cameras and chemical sensors, flying up to 10,500 feet.

Army-funded researchers are developing an unmanned ambulance. The 3,500-pound Robotic Extraction Vehicle can drag wounded soldiers to safety and shelter them on two stretchers with life-support systems under its armored exterior as they prepare for evacuation. And Sandia National Laboratories has successfully tested an explosive destruction system that internalizes explosions and contains the blast, vapor, and fragments — and treats and destroys biohazards such as anthrax.

For Sarver, EOD improvements can’t come too soon. “People have walked on the moon, and we’re still working with robots that have so much potential,” he says. His suggestion: Let the present EOD robot-producing companies put their heads together to make a super-robot that has the speed of the talon, the weight and frame of the ANDROS, and the optics and configurations of the PackBot.

Then, says Sarver, “you’d have a really nice robot.”

Weighing the cost

Does this mean soldiers will become less important or even obsolete as the robotics technology accelerates? Some think so, including Project Alpha, a U.S. Joint Forces Command analysis group, which predicts that by 2025, autonomous battlefield robots will be the rule, not the exception.

But contrast that thinking to a recent incident reported in Stars and Stripes in which a group of engineers and armor soldiers of 1st Battalion, 13th Armor Regiment were patrolling near Camp Taji, Iraq. They became suspicious of a hollowed-out log that turned out to contain artillery wires. As a wheeled robot went down to blow up the log while the soldiers stayed at a safe distance, an insurgent remotely detonated a second bomb nearby, and a third bomb was discovered. The pattern of the second and third bombs was designed to catch the EOD soldiers as they investigated the first. The bad guy might have been smarter than the robot, but turned out to be not as smart as the soldiers who learned from the experience.

The lesson is unmistakable: Technology is great. But the technology isn’t the only thing that has to keep up with the enemy — so do the humans. They’re the ones who invent, service, and implement the machines. When bombs are the issue, humans have to be right every time, because soldiers are irreplaceable to the military and the ones who love them.