BEAR robot carries injured soldiers to safety

Although Stephen Colbert hates bears, he might actually go for this one, given that it's designed to save lives, not destroy them. The Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot is a new bipedal droid designed to carry injured soldiers off of the battle-charred landscape as far as an hour's distance. What's more, its lower legs can fold down to roll away on tank treads, which seems a vast improvement over the previous spider-like designs that we've seen lately. No word yet on if it's actually tried to carry a real live shell-shocked GI -- which might be a little different than a lifeless dummy -- but beyond military applications, Vecna Technologies intends to use the BEAR for more domestic purposes. On their site they also illustrated plans for the robot to help mobility-impaired patients as a home-living assistant, and even show it carrying tea in one diagram. You know, come to think of it we wouldn't object at all if one of these things showed up every now and again to refill our tea mugs.

[Via Roland Piquepaille]

[shirizaki @ Aug 29th 2006 6:39PM]

I, for one, welcome our medical and burger flipping overlords.

[crypt @ Aug 29th 2006 6:46PM]

Johnny 5 is Alive....

well sort of, Im not to sure about the teaddy bear head design, but I'll take two anyway.

[page @ Aug 29th 2006 6:52PM]

"carries injured soldiers" okay sure but safely? I don't think so, it lacks a force field feature.

[Tomy @ Aug 29th 2006 6:54PM]

Here's an idea, why not just make robots to do the actual fighting? Oh yeah, because robots are more expensive than human lives.

[rboyce @ Aug 29th 2006 7:08PM]

It's merely an attempt by bears to get us to trust their robot slaves. I'm willing to bet that this robot carries the wounded to bears -- AS FOOD -- rather than to medical assistance.

[Chase B @ Aug 29th 2006 7:29PM]

Aren't bears on notice?

[Michael @ Aug 29th 2006 8:00PM]

I think this could be a great type of device. Make a home version available. I have a relative who's paralized from the neck down and a device like this could be able to remove him from bed and get him out of the house in an emergency and possibly to safety. Interesting indeed...

[Faar @ Aug 29th 2006 8:04PM]

Um, this design looks rather crap for actually carrying out its supposed task. It's not as if carrying a person cradled in two outstretched arms like a sleepy toddler is the ultimate form of transportation for an injured person or anything, what if the soldier (patient?) suffers from a back or neck injury, or a severed limb? The damage to a broken spine would be increased -probably greatly - and with arms and legs just dangling about, a human suffering from an amputation wound would bleed out on the way off the battlefield...

If this robotic overlord had had a built-in stretcher or something, with means of affixing the patient firmly then we might be talking, but this is just silly nonsense.

[Eli @ Aug 29th 2006 8:06PM]

I want one to come along as a drinking buddy so it can carry me to a cab and/or home if I pass out :D

[CharlieX @ Aug 29th 2006 8:15PM]

imagine you've been shot, you're in shock, explosions everywhere, and you look up to see who's carrying you to safety: a grey mouthless teddy bear.

[Aaron @ Aug 29th 2006 8:32PM]

"Johnny 5 is Alive....

well sort of, Im not to sure about the teaddy bear head design, but I'll take two anyway."

Haha, those are the same two things I thought of when I saw the picture. Johnny 5, then weird teddy bear head.

[stirrinthepot @ Aug 29th 2006 8:53PM]

Hmmm...scale it up a bit and it would be great for flipping armored vehicles...just replace the bear head with a .30 cal. for close in work...The design also lends nicely to "pop-up, fire-and-forget" systems...

Sadly, Asimov had it all wrong.

[gorewayne.com @ Aug 29th 2006 9:06PM]

wouldn't it make a HUGE target when people see something like this moving around? I see, the real job for this robot is to find the wounded, give them a second chance to die, and then bring back bodies to make sure they won't turn into angry veterians....

[TeddyN @ Aug 29th 2006 9:06PM]

Great. I bet the Iraqis will be so impressed. We can barely install the technology for running water but outside their houses robots are running through the streets.

Beyond Iraq though, when will they start giving the Medal of Honor to robots? It seems to me that usually when it's awarded it's given to someone who rescued a comrade from enemy fire.

[Dave @ Aug 29th 2006 9:42PM]

This defines "bad idea." Also, I'd much rather a mouthless teddy bear carry me like a toddler than climb into a far more dignity-retaining wheelchair if I was mobility-impaired.

[damned bears on notice @ Aug 29th 2006 10:13PM]

Those arms could be dangerous weapons. When our dignity robbing, medical overlords turn upon us they'll use that picking up motion to smack us all in the balls. Then we'll have no way of reproducing. Technology is killing our balls. Sure a leg can damage, but a "high-powered hydraulic upper body" can do them in forever. X-(

[Rivendale286 @ Aug 29th 2006 10:48PM]

This is crazy. I just popped in my DVD of Short Circuit and watched it like 3 hours before seeing this post... Need input...

[WackyComputer @ Aug 30th 2006 12:11AM]

Who says that the injured soldier is alone? The BEAR could transport the injured soldier leaving the other soldiers free to use their weapons and protect the injured.

[phil @ Aug 30th 2006 3:06AM]

The fact that this product is even viable is scary, this kind of product should be a parody, unfortunately it is not. We shouldn't have so many dead soldiers to necessitate a product like this. I'm not the only one who thinks this, am I?

[Dillon @ Aug 30th 2006 1:03PM]

What's the advantage of this over just throwing the guy in a truck and driving him to safety. This robot thing would be so much slower, expensive, and a target more will find worth hitting.

[Tamoko @ Aug 30th 2006 3:58PM]

Prototype falacies aside, I find this interesting.. I agree with stirrinthepots' comment. Pairing 2 of these up with a platoon of human soldiers could provide recon, medical evac, and even weapons support functions. Robots will "never" be able to function at the same levels as humans in combat, especially urban combat. Why not just supliment humans with these and maybe the tech will eventually trickle back to the civilian sector to provide eldercare assistants and robo-day care workers?

[Michael @ Aug 30th 2006 6:14PM]

Now lets see is it going to be good in the desert with bombs and guns firing is it going to be that fast or is it going to be 5 miles per hour. Soon robots are gona do our dirty work. Soon america will be really lazy and fat. There are gona be pizza delivery robots that come to our house and feeds the food to us.

[David @ Aug 30th 2006 6:29PM]

"Here's an idea, why not just make robots to do the actual fighting? Oh yeah, because robots are more expensive than human lives."

Tomy, stop sniffing glue and do some math will you? First of all, you CANNOT have the robots doing the fighting. They cannot make the split second decisions that require concious thought, voice and/or face recognition, and so on.

Secondly, think about ALL the money thats invested in a soldier. ALL of it. Not just his or her pay, but benefits, housing, food, training, hazardous duty pay. The list goes on and on. If you were ever in the military, which I was and bet you were or are not, you would know how damn expensive 1 soldier is. Sorry, I guess you're just too damn busy drinking the left wing kool aid.

[Andrew @ Aug 31st 2006 1:33AM]

so umm... where does the blown off leg or arm go? or is there a cub bear following the bear robot to pick up soldier's limbs or does it get left behind to be hoisted on to a pike and shown by the enemy?

[Gladiators R Us @ Aug 31st 2006 12:27PM]

Fantastic...from robot gladiator games at MIT we finally have something functional. Let the kids play with their toys and lets live in a better world because of it!

How much more viable will a nuclear power be without having to send a person into do any of the work. Talk about sustainability.

[patrick @ Sep 25th 2006 12:53PM]

come on now this is a great idea because in war people shoot to injure kills are not as good as wounding someone cuz it takes 2 people to haul one wounded guy out so if you dont have to worry about the wounded you can fire more and be more likly to win and i am sure if they pu tthe robots in it would be made bullet proof and i would rater be hurt from moving by the robot then dieing how about you??

[theo @ Oct 23rd 2006 4:20PM]

Lots of good comments. The BEAR is intended for situations where larger vehicles cannot be used, and where it is too dangerous for other soldiers. (Chem, Nuke, Bio, Live Fire, Unstable Structures.)

The BEAR does have the ability to pull a rescue sled, and when practical, it would place the wounded on the sled and then pull it to safety. When not being used in rescue, the BEAR can be used to move/carry heavy things, load trucks, do patrol/security duty, etc.

The current stats show that less than 2 percent of battlefield injuries involve damage to the spine. Even so, the operator will be responsible for assessing the situation before making the decision to move the wounded soldier or not.

Any in home or hospital applications are years off.