Newsgroups: comp.robotics
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From: doug@meditor@demon.co.uk (Doug Richardson)
Subject: Military robotics
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Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 10:50:23 GMT
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I tried to post this message at c.10am UK time on 7th Feb)
but my local internet node reported a server error. So I'm trying again.

If this results in multiple postings, please accept my apologies!


I've been asked by the European defence magazine "Armada International"
to write an article on military robotics. I normally cover electronics 
topics for them,and am generally familiar with with most basic military 
robots, i.e those used for tasks such as minehunting and bomb disposal.

What I'd like to do is to look at what's in the R&D field, but this has 
hardly been covered in the traditional defence magazines.

I'd like to find out what sort of 
unclassified research in going on in areas such as autonomous sensors, 
autonomous manipulators,autonomous vehicles, exoskeletons, etc. I seem 
to recall that in the past, DARPA and NASA studied ground vehicles powered
 by legs rather than wheels.

In the hopes of discovering the status of the following civil and military programmes, 
and of any follow-on projects which might have resulted from these . . 

Advanced Mobile Robot (AMR) (planned European autonomous vehicle)

John Deere Remotely-operated earthmover (USAF runway-repair project)

FMC Universal Self-Deployable Cargo Handler

GD/FMC Advanced Ground Vehicle Technology (remotely-controlled M113)

Grumman Robotic Ranger

Israel Aircraft Industries Pele (remotely-controlled tank)

Martin-Marietta/Grumman Tele-Operated Mobile Anti-armor Program

Martin Marietta Autonomous Land Vehicle

Martin-Mariatta/Grumman Caleb (proposed US Army robot vehicle)

Mobile Advanced Robotics Defence Initiative (UK technology study)

Odetics legged robots

Ohio State University Adaptive Suspension Vehicle

Robot Defense Systems/Standard Manufacturing Corp Programmable Robot
Observer with Logical Enemy Response

US Army Automotive Command Robotic Obstacle-Breaching Assault Tank

US Army remotely-controlled version of Porsche/Krupp MaK Wiesel

US Army MedTec (casualty-evacuation robot)


. . . I've spent hours at the Science Reference Library in London browsing
through tens of feet of books/symposia reports etc, but found only one 
(very general) paper on military robotics. There are papers on the use of
robots/robotic technology in dozens of specialist areas, but defence gets
virtually no mention. 

Can anyone suggest individuals or locations I could contact either by 
internet or phone to get information on this topic? 

Or an FTP site where I could obtain reports on these and other relevant 
research projects?

There is a journal called "Unmanned Systems" which I've found useful, but a
second publication called "Military Robotics Newsletter" is not available
in the London Science Reference Library.

Although I've used on-line databases since the early 1980s, I must 
confess to being an Internet "newbie". I've tried WAIS and WWW searches 
for "military" and "robot" but have had no useful hits. 

Searching has been made difficult by the fact that the Internet is the 
current "hot topic" here in the UK - all the service providers are 
overwhelmed with demand. Logging in can involve more than 50 rediallings, 
and the system is slowed to the speed of growing grass! At UK phone rates, 
this is rapidly sending my phone bill into scientific notation. . . 

Regards
