Air Force looking to develop foot-long subterranean defusers

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 17th 2006 at 1:10PM

While it probably won't matter much once we're pitting one robot army against another, it appears that the US Air Force is looking into new "subterranean vehicles" that could be used to navigate to underground bombs, traps, or nuclear pods and defuse the situation from beneath. Although we figured the USAF would focus the majority of its attention somewhere above the Earth's surface, the newfangled moles would be deployed a safe distance from the target and "autonomously navigate itself to the target" while cleverly avoiding buried obstacles on its route. While larger digging machines can certainly accomplish the same task, the catch here is that the life-saving worm must not exceed "12 inches" in length and be able to run off of minimal battery power. Similar to other "teams" of robotic creatures feeding off one another to accomplish complex goals, the Air Force envisions swarms of these diggers penetrating and neutralizing potential hotbeds for underground explosives, all without sacrificing human lives. Now if we only had one of these bad boys to sneak up into Best Buy's PS3 holding closet last night, we'd have a winner.

[Via Defense Tech]

Filed under: Robots

Tags: air force, AirForce, america, army, bomb, digger, explosive, militar, nuclear, subterranean, united states, UnitedStates, us, war, warfare

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

pimp @ Nov 17th 2006 1:26PM

I fuckin love Digdug!

Neutral

LaSean @ Nov 17th 2006 1:36PM

Before any knuckleheads post -- no, that is not an actual satellite image of the test site.

Neutral

elsongonzaes @ Nov 17th 2006 2:01PM

Tremors 4

Neutral

elsongonzaes @ Nov 17th 2006 2:02PM

Tremors 4

Neutral

enzo @ Nov 17th 2006 3:00PM

Remember those drilling machines Shredder and his henchmen used in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles television series? I've always wanted one of those.

Neutral

alex @ Nov 17th 2006 3:59PM

Ah, brings back good memories. Love digdug too, but of course I'm dating myself.

Neutral

Brandon West @ Nov 17th 2006 4:35PM

What exactly is a nuclear pod? 6G with a touchscreen?

Neutral

david @ Nov 17th 2006 6:36PM

I love Digdug! (Starts up ancient 75 Mhz computer and plays the game.)

Neutral

Ignacio @ Nov 17th 2006 7:05PM

Yay! DigDug! :D

Neutral

Aaron @ Nov 17th 2006 7:46PM

ah Pookas and Fygars... Digdug was such a great game

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