Leaping Sand Flea robot heading to Afghanistan
Baku, November 12 (AZERTAC). The Sand Flea looks like a laptop with four wheels. But it can leap up to 24 feet high, landing on its wheels every time.
The robot, first developed by the Pentagon`s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is built by Boston Dynamics and Sandia National Laboratories and will soon arrive in Afghanistan for testing.
It could be especially useful for troops navigating large compounds. Mounted with a camera, the Sand Flea can be remotely operated by troops, who can send the robot over a wall, drive it around to get an inside look at a compound, and then launch it back over the wall to search the next compound.
The Army`s Rapid Equipping Force will ship two Sand Fleas to Afghanistan this winter to be tested. Army Col. Peter Newell, head of the REF, ordered eight more to gauge what soldiers think, but if the tests go well, he said, ground commanders likely will want thousands more shipped immediately.
While the Marine Corps has not yet contacted the Army about the Sand Flea, REF spokeswoman Ali Sanders said Marines could definitely make use of the robot, especially in areas such as Sangin.
On patrols near multiple compounds, troops saddled with 100-pound loads either must scale the walls or kick down the doors to search behind them, putting troops at risk from booby traps or utter exhaustion. Without access to an overhead unmanned air system, units would also be left vulnerable to an ambush.
Ground commanders told Newell they need another option.
Newell`s acquisition agency, which has bought soldiers such lifesaving gadgets as the Raven UAS and the Sniper Pod, turned again to robots — and found the Sand Flea.
Boston Dynamics engineer Marc Raibert said the 10-pound Sand Flea can leap so that troops can put it through second-story windows. Engineers designed the wheels and ruggedized the camera to absorb the landings.
Service members can count on the Sand Flea to land on its wheels ready to drive because engineers stabilized the robot in flight, Raibert said.
Thanks to a small radio mounted inside, troops can operate the Sand Flea with a standard operator control unit designed for other robots, so training to use it likely will be short.
If the robot catches on in Afghanistan, Newell might soon have to find a way to mass-produce the jumping robot: Each one is now made by hand inside Boston Dynamics` lab.
Sand Flea is not the only robot Newell is looking at. He`s already equipped four brigades in Afghanistan with 100 “throwbots” — the Recon Scout XT. The 1.3-pound robot looks like a dumbbell, with wheels instead of weights.
“Soldiers love it,” Newell said. “You can throw it as far and hard as you can and it lands, and then you drive it.”
The Corps is considering equipping infantry troops with the Recon Scout or iRobot`s 110 First Look.
RHex, a robot inspired by a cockroach, might soon save Marines and soldiers from searching through the muck.
The REF received the request for a RHex-like robot in May 2009, but most robots can`t travel through high grass, Newell said.
Rubber attachments to RHex`s many legs allow the robot to move, slide, fall and grasp — all at once. Multiple legs moving at the same time are the key to keeping RHex from getting bogged down. The robot can even swim and drive to inspect those canals under mud and water.
Newell said he plans to ship the first RHex robots in May.
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