UnmannedGroundVehicle
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Lockheed Martin's SMSS autonomous vehicle wins Army competition, ships off to Afghanistan (video)
The US military's fleet of unmanned vehicles may soon get some extra support, now that Lockheed Martin's Squad Mission Support System (SMSS) has received the Army's official blessing. Designed to support infantry squads or special ops forces, the company's autonomous craft was recently crowned the winner of the Army-sponsored Project Workhorse Unmanned Ground Vehicle competition, after more than a decade of development. Measuring 11 feet in length, the SMSS is capable of transporting more than 1,000 pounds of equipment over rugged terrain, and features a set of onboard sensors that can automatically track individuals by recognizing their 3D profiles. Both the SMSS and its Block I variant can be carried aboard CH-47 and CH-53 choppers, with the latter offering a driving range of 125 miles. Three of the beasts will deploy to Afghanistan for a three-month evaluation later this year, when they'll become the largest unmanned vehicles to ever deploy with infantry. Shoot past the break for a video tour of the SMSS, along with the full press release.
Father develops unmanned ground bots in memory of son's death in Iraq
When Brian Hart's 20 year old son was killed in Iraq in 2003, the grief-stricken parent turned his anguish to engineering, founding Black-I Robotics to build unmanned ground vehicles for recon, explosives and hazard work, and most of the other stuff you see land-bots doing in dangerous situations. Of course, what makes Hart's story so powerful is also what gives it a certain irony -- after taking the government to task for leading the nation's under-equipped military into unnecessarily dangerous situations, he began taking on work as a defense contractor to develop a cheaper, more robust machine in the hopes of getting more soldiers out of harm's way. Last week Black-I secured another $800,000 contract from the gov's Technical Support Working Group, and has also been field-trialing their latest version of the Land Shark UGV for the past few months.[Via Physorg]
