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UK military's bomb disposal robots come with haptic feedback
Bomb disposal experts won't have to put their lives at stake every time they have to disarm an explosive if they can do their job with the help of a proxy -- like a robot they can control from afar. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, the British Army has received four cutting-edge robots that can do just that. Unlike other bomb disposal machines, these ones come with "advanced haptic feedback" that allows their operators to feel what their mechanical arm holds or touches through a remote-control hand grip.
A police robot disarmed a violent suspect in Los Angeles County
Last week, on September 8th, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's department successfully used a remote-controlled bomb squad robot to snatch a rifle out from under an armed and violent suspect. The standoff between the suspect and an armored SWAT team lasted for more than six hours, but concluded without a single shot fired. "The robot was a game changer here," Capt. Jack Ewell told the LA Times. "We didn't have to risk a deputy's life to disarm a very violent man."
Dallas' bomb robot sparks debate around police militarization
"We saw no other option than to use our bomb robot." Camera shutters clacked as Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a crowd of reporters how his department killed a suspect after a shooting spree that left five officers dead and seven more wounded Thursday night. Law enforcement and a hostage negotiator cornered the suspect and attempted to talk him down for several hours; they learned that he was upset about recent fatal police shootings of black men around the nation and that he "wanted to kill white people, especially white officers." Officers and the 25-year-old man ended up exchanging fire. After hours of attempted negotiations, a police surveillance robot armed with a bomb on its extending arm rolled onto the scene. The explosive was detonated in the man's makeshift bunker, and he died in the blast. "Other options would have exposed our officers to great danger," Brown said.
NPL, Imperial College create room-temperature maser, promise more sensitive beams
Masers, or microwave lasers, have rarely been as viable as their regular counterparts; they need temperatures near absolute zero, exotic vacuum chambers or strong magnets just to run at all, which safely rules out carrying a maser as a pocket pointer. The National Physical Laboratory and Imperial College London might put that gap in practicality to bed after developing a maser that can run at room temperatures. Instead of using ruby to boost the microwave strength, the scientists rely on a less pronounceable p-terphenyl crystal treated with pentacene that can handle ordinary amounts of heat. There's still much work left in refining the technology: it has yet to stay active for sustained periods, only works in a narrow bandwidth and chews through an ample amount of power. Once it's given the appropriate polish, however, the extra sensitivity of the improved maser could be a boon for medical scanning, bomb disposal or even future space communication that could punch through the atmosphere.
Mesa Robotics' mini-tank is perfectly happy on point (video)
The Acer ground-bot from Mesa Robotics does way more than your average 4,500-pound semi-autonomous mule. In addition to carrying kit and providing that extra bit of ballistic steel-deflecting cover, it also scans for IEDs using ground-penetrating radar and then autonomously switches into "flail" mode when it finds one -- digging up and detonating that critter with barely a break in its 6MPH stride. Did we mention it also acts as a landing pad for small drones? No? That's because the video after the break says it all. Cue obligatory guitars, game controllers and armchair gung-ho.
iRobot agrees to provide US Navy with bomb disposal and recon bots in a deal worth up to $230 million
iRobot may still be best known as the creator of the homely Roomba vacuum-cleaning drone, but savvy readers will know the company's endeavors span a pretty broad range of robot-related activities. One of those has now borne fruit in the shape of a multiyear agreement with the US Navy for the provision of "portable robotic systems" that can identify and dispose of explosives while also performing a bit of reconnaissance work in their spare time. The announcement doesn't tell us the particular model(s) or number of bots that will be provided, but there is clarification to say that iRobot will be responsible for providing spares, repairs, training, and accessories along with the hardware, with the total revenue for the company potentially swelling to $230 million over the full course of the contract, which lasts through 2015. Our guess is that the "throwable" robot shown off a couple of weeks back would be a good candidate for this task, though we doubt it'll be thanking us for endorsing it for such perilous work.
