iRobot garners award for DARPA LANdroids initiative

Get ready, battlefields, as yet another iRobot is gearing up to take you all by storm. Announced today, the aforementioned outfit has received an award under DARPA's LANdroids program which will enable it to "develop a new portable communications relay robot that is small, inexpensive, intelligent and robust." The resulting creature will reportedly be used in "dense urban environments to rapidly deploy and maintain a vital communications infrastructure," and better still, they'll be tough enough to be thrown into position and intelligent enough to "autonomously detect and avoid obstacles while navigating." Unfortunately, it seems the conclusion of said project is still a few years out, but we can already envision soldiers getting antsy to never be forced to utter "can you hear me now?" again.

[Via InformationWeek]

[usedHONDA @ Mar 3rd 2008 5:12PM]

Great! Now I won't have to get out of my chair to get a bottle of Absolute XD

[pismodude2 @ Mar 3rd 2008 5:13PM]

I need one of these... If I get two, maybe I can make them battle each other?

[phanbouy @ Mar 3rd 2008 6:03PM]

I, Robot vs. iRobot

[Shuricain @ Mar 3rd 2008 5:26PM]

Reminds me of the little "Mouse Droids" from Star Wars:
http://cards.swccgpc.com/premiere/ds/mse6mousedroid.gif

[Toadlet @ Mar 3rd 2008 5:26PM]

iRobot: installing LANs with extreme prejudice

[phanbouy @ Mar 3rd 2008 5:40PM]

anyone who adds a "now" to the end of "can you hear me?" really needs a good smack down

[trevor @ Mar 4th 2008 2:36AM]

Or the people who stay on the line for five minutes saying, "hello? Hellooooo..." when they can't hear anything on the other end. As if saying "hello" with the right tonal inclination would suddenly repair the connection.

Baffling.

[William @ Mar 3rd 2008 6:22PM]

Yes, but what happens in these Dense Urban Jungles when some kids stumble upon one and decide they want to take it home as a new toy?

My Bet, as soon as the military gets a hold of them, they will equip them with some anti-human device!

[Robobagins @ Mar 3rd 2008 7:12PM]

Redefines the concept of WARdriving.

[yahmes @ Mar 3rd 2008 7:31PM]

will it blend??

probs not it could just climb out and then irobotize the blender

the scientist dude would be like....wtf?!?!?

[OneLove @ Mar 4th 2008 12:13PM]

from janitor to warlord