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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]

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iRobot garners award for DARPA LANdroids initiative originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>battlecombatcontractdarpadefenseirobotLANdroidsmilitarypackbotwarMon, 03 Mar 2008 17:09:00 EST<![CDATA[LANdroids offer autonomous radio relay on the battlefield]]>http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/landroids-offer-autonomous-radio-relay-on-the-battlefield/http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/landroids-offer-autonomous-radio-relay-on-the-battlefield/http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/13/landroids-offer-autonomous-radio-relay-on-the-battlefield/#comments
DARPA's proposed LANdroids won't be the first installation to offer up expendable data gathering pawns on the battlefield, but these "intelligent, autonomous radio relay nodes" could be used to "establish and manage mesh networks in urban settings." Essentially, these critters would be cheaply produced and handed out en masse for warfighters to drop at random in order to create temporary and continually evolving network infrastructures that could lead to better communication over various occupied regions. It even sounds like these creatures will sport self-healing design cues, and while we're not sure if they'll be immune to imminent EMP blasts, we can already envision bored soldiers futilely hooking these things up to their PSPs and searching for an open game room. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via El Reg]

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LANdroids offer autonomous radio relay on the battlefield originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:53:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments]]>armyautonomousbattlebattlefielddarpadefensedriodsdroidgovernmentiptoLANdroidsmesh networkingMeshNetworkingmini-droidsususawarwifiWed, 13 Jun 2007 23:53:00 EST