Defeating the enemies of freedom just became safer, more effective and infinitely cooler:
Troops can throw it around a corner, through a window, up the stairs, on the roof or in a cave and the rugged Dragon Runner will land on its feet and continue its mission. The Dragon Runner, a 9-pound rear-wheel drive robot, is designed to save lives by allowing tactical troops to "see around the corner" in an urban environment. The 9-pound portable surveillance robot is designed to save service members' lives by allowing tactical troops to "see around the corner" in an urban environment.Funded by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and the Office of Naval Research in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute, the baseline model uses a wireless modem and UHF video transmitter. A rear-mounted handle allows for easy handling and pull-pin power on/off operation. The front-mounted tilting camera provides video feedback.
Army Col. Bruce Jette, director of the Rapid Equipping Force, Fort Belvoir, Va., was one of the first to use the Dragon Runner in the caves of Afghanistan. "We lost a couple of (robots) to improvised explosive devices, but that's OK – it wasn't soldiers. Robotics (in the field) is working."
Technologists routinely overplay their hand by suggesting that tasks requiring the best attributes of humanity — wit, courage, ingenuity and spontaneity — can and should be relegated to robots. Until scientists create cybernetic neural networks that can become greater than the sum of their parts, our metal-and-plastic friends will remain exciting and humorous reflections of ourselves — but only reflections, their intelligence strictly artificial. Death is tragedy; electronic breakdown is not. We might someday build them with enough soul to win the hearts of sentimentalists and judiciaries, but for now robots will do for the most dangerous, perfunctory tasks. Run, Dragon, run.
