Army personnel often face situations during combat that can’t be overcome with readily available equipment, and they rarely have time to wait for the Pentagon’s glacial-paced R&D to devise a solution. But with the Army’s new mobile specialty production facility, they won’t have to. More »
iRobot may be best known for its household automatons, but the company’s expertise goes far beyond circular bots built for sweeping and scrubbing floors. Its Warrior and 110 FirstLook bots are built for the military, and now the Advanced Inflatable Robot (AIR) arm model is joining its armed forces brethren. The AIRarm prototype is essentially a Packbot whose metal arm’s been replaced with an inflatable version able to lift four times its own half-pound weight. That might not seem like much, but considering most rigid robot arms can only lift a fraction of their own weight, it represents a sizable gain in strength-to-weight ratio. Plus, the arm can get stronger by simply dialing up the air pressure. As an inflatable limb, it can also operate delicately around meatbags — just as the air pressure is increased for strength, it can be decreased when in close proximity to people so as not to injure them. For its prototype effort, iRobot’s going to get a $625,000 contract from DARPA to continue the AIRarm’s development, and you can see a bit of what that money will buy in the video after the break.
Filed under: Robots
iRobot’s AIRarm prototype bot has an inflatable arm for manipulating objects, was built at DARPA’s behest originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 22 Aug 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you are part of the Rapid Equipping Force in the US Army, then you will be pleased to hear that this rapid prototyping wing has just been deployed to Afghanistan, scientists, 3D printers and all. This particular wing’s duty is pretty unique, remaining far away from the battlefield action and yet providing no less support as they are capable of churning out customized pieces of equipment required on the battlefield thanks to the wonders of 3D printing, save in mobile form these days. Talk about significantly cutting down the amount of time required in order to produce wanted equipment, not to mention virtually removing shipping times from afar!
The printer used is capable of churning out plastic parts while a CNC system, a Haas OM-2 in this case, is able to create parts out of steel and aluminum. The thing is, you always get what you pay for, and in the name of speed and convenience, each of these mobile 3D printing labs will cost approximately $2.8 million which includes 3D printing devices, a full stock of relatively traditional tools such as saws and welders, and a pair of engineers in each lab. Hand me a 3D printed assault rifle there mate, I seem to have misplaced mine in the last Taliban skirmish.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: DIY tilt-shift adapter is made using a 3D printer, 3D printing allows for customizable prosthetic limbs,
Now here is something that the military will find interesting – the O2PAK, a tiny, non-pressurized emergency chemical oxygen generator that hails from Combat Critical Care Corp. which was specially designed for military, ESAR/CSAR and humanitarian operations. Basically, the O2PAK will tip the scales at approximately three pounds while fitting in a pack without batting and eyelid. There is no need to maintain it, and neither do you need to mix or fill it up later, although if it has not been used for the better part of 4 years, you would do well to discard it away considering that is the length of its shelf life.
Even better news is the lack of need for any maintenance whatsoever for this one-time use military pack. The O2PAK will be able to produce solid-state chemical oxygen, doing away with potential associated risks of explosion, and needs no electricity while going at it. Touted to produce oxygen for 22 minutes at the very minimum, and it is even operable at up to 40,000′ altitude. Fret not about it spontaneously combusting like a Fisker Karma, as it has been subjected to a battery of medical, ballistic, blast and fire tests, passing them with flying colors.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Rapid Equipping Force gets Mobile 3D Printers to produce equipment on-the-go, Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) approved by the US Navy,
What if a virus were a shapeshifter, able to change its appearance each time it infects a machine? What if a virus used your own files against you, able to ransack the programs on your computer for the bits of code it needs? Judging from the progress made on the Frankenstein virus, a venture sponsored by the U.S. Air Force, that may soon be a reality. More »
I hate, hate, HATE, the idea of being trapped in the water upside down. Or down upside. Or whatever side. It’s one of the worst deaths I can imagine. Thankfully, if you are a USAF helicopter pilot, there’s a way out: More »
The U.S Marines have a new precision weapon in its arsenal. With the APKWS acronym (Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System), the new system upgrades a normal Hydra 70mm rocket into a laser-guided smart weapon. You have probably seen this type of rockets in movies as they are often carried on the sides of Huey or Cobra helicopters.
The advantage of the APKWS system is two-fold: it does much less damage than a standard 500lbs or even “smaller” 250lbs smart bombs, which is great to avoid collateral damages. Also, the platform (plane, chopper…) carrying the APKWS may be able to carry more rockets (than bombs), which means that it could handle more target within a single mission. That said, a single APKWS remains extremely destructive, but less so than other laser-guided smart munitions.
As for the precision, the US Marines have reported that during tests on both static and moving targets, the APKWS has been able to hit with a 17″ precision from where the laser designator was aiming at. Needless to say that this is very accurate.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Infra-red invisibility cloak for tanks, Laser machine gun combo appeals to US Navy,
70mm Hydra rockets have been a mainstay of the US military since the 1940s. They’re less expensive and cause less collateral damage than, say, a Hellfire-sized ordnance. Problem is—they don’t steer well, or rather, at all. A new laser-guidance upgrade from BAE Systems, however, is poised to make the Hydra-70 much agile and much more deadly. More »
70mm Hydra rockets have been a mainstay of the US military since the 1940s. They’re less expensive and cause less collateral damage than, say, a Hellfire-sized ordnance. Problem is—they don’t steer well, or rather, at all. A new laser-guidance upgrade from BAE Systems, however, is poised to make the Hydra-70 much agile and much more deadly. More »
When a military contractor is trying to sell some wacky superweapon to the Pentagon, or when the Pentagon is trying to sell some wacky superweapon to Congress, it draws a cool action picture. But why are they so horribly terrible? More »
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