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Archive for the ‘Robotics’ Category

Ghost Robotics Response to Boston Dynamics Pending Litigation

Saturday, November 19th, 2022

PHILADELPHIA, PA, November 17, 2022 — Ghost Robotics announced today their formal response to the Boston Dynamics lawsuit.

Founded in 2015, Ghost Robotics has quickly grown to become the number one supplier of legged robots to US and Allied Governments. The flagship Vision 60 robot offers best-in-class endurance, speed, weather protection, and field repairability. It is the only legged robot on the market that is capable of operating in all environmental conditions for sustained, real-world missions to improve efficiency and save lives.

Evolving from close customer collaboration, coupled with exceptional innovation at Ghost Robotics, these capabilities have led to rapid adoption by US Air Force, Army, and Special Forces as well as Allied Governments including the UK, Australia, Israel, Germany, Singapore, and the Republic of Korea Blue House.

Ghost Robotics was born out of the PhD research of CTO Avik De and CEO Gavin Kenneally, under the tutelage of the esteemed Prof. Dan Koditschek at The University of Pennsylvania. Prof. Koditschek is a pioneer in the field of legged robots and holds the patent (jointly with his former students, Martin Buehler and Uluc Saranli) for the first battery-powered, dynamic legged robot, RHex (US6481513B2, filed March 14, 2001).

Ghost Robotics’ success has not gone unnoticed by Boston Dynamics. Rather than compete on a level playing field, the company chose to file an obstructive and baseless lawsuit on November 11th in an attempt to halt the newcomer’s progress. Boston Dynamics is drawing on their considerably larger resources to litigate instead of innovate.

Ghost Robotics strongly believes that fair competition drives the market and looks forward to a thriving legged robot industry, for the benefit of humanity.

Posted in Industry, Press Release, Robotics | Comments Off on Ghost Robotics Response to Boston Dynamics Pending Litigation

MWW 22 – All-Terrain electric Mission Module

Monday, November 14th, 2022

During the recent Modern Warfare Week demo day at the Range Complex near Fort Bragg, I had the opportunity to see the All-Terrain electric Mission Module (pronounced Atom) from Plasan North America.

At first glance it’s a trailer. But it also incorporates a 47kWh Li-Iron Battery Pack. Additionally, the system is modular allowing the addition of mission payloads including weapons. ATeMM can be synchronized with the lead vehicle and this system also means it can be remotely operated.

When combined with a lead vehicle, the platform performs as an 8×8. ATeMM’s wheels track with any turns conducted by the lead vehicle which helps keep turns radiuses tight.

Not only can it add propulsion to any vehicle it’s attached to, but it can either propel that vehicle on its own or be charged while being towed by the other vehicle via regenerative braking and coast regeneration. It turns legacy vehicles like the HMMWV, ISV, and GMV 1.1 into hybrids without having to buy completely new systems. Those vehicles can also be moved in silent mode if propelled by ATeMM.

Since ATeMM is also a large battery, it can be used to power a wide variety of systems. As the Army looks more and more toward highly mobile command posts, this offers a way silently power them.

Because it does so many things ATeMM defies categorization. In fact, it’s an issue that the Army’s acquisition system is facing. ATeMM has been used in several experiments and is exactly the kind of multi-use gear that Cross Functional Teams love but when it comes to who would write a requirement and which Program Executive Office would be responsible is where things become fuzzy.

ATeMM looks to be a great options, but may be too generalized for a requirements generation process that seeks out highly specialized capability.

Posted in GSOF, Mobility, Power, Robotics | Comments Off on MWW 22 – All-Terrain electric Mission Module

HII Unveils REMUS 620 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Wednesday, November 9th, 2022

Enhanced Endurance, Mission Capacity and Odyssey™ Advanced Autonomy

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 07, 2022 — HII’s (NYSE: HII) Mission Technologies division has revealed a new medium-class unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV): REMUS 620.

Building on the design philosophy of the highly successful REMUS 300 — recently selected by the U.S. Navy as the program of record for the Lionfish Small UUV — the REMUS 620 has a battery life of up to 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles, providing unmatched mission capabilities for mine countermeasures, hydrographic surveys, intelligence collection, surveillance and electronic warfare.

“Retaining a forward strategic advantage requires the ability to deliver a multitude of effects from under the sea,” said Duane Fotheringham, president of Mission Technologies’ Unmanned Systems business group. “The REMUS 620 is the first medium UUV designed to accurately deliver this range of advanced above-and-below water effects at long range.”

Built to support current and next-generation naval and special operations forces operations, REMUS 620 features a modular, open architecture design to facilitate seamless payload integration and HII’s Odyssey™ suite of advanced autonomy solutions for intelligent, robotic platforms.

REMUS 620 is the same size and weight of the first and only full-rate production medium UUVs: the MK 18 Mod 2, Littoral Battleship Sensing-Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (LBS-AUV) and LBS-Razorback systems operated by the U.S. Navy’s Mine Countermeasure Squadrons, U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office and Submarine Forces, respectively.

Multiple REMUS 620s operating collaboratively can be deployed from submarines, small manned or unmanned boats, amphibious ships, surface combatants and helicopters. REMUS 620 can also be used as a platform to launch and operate other unmanned vehicles or payloads from beneath the sea.

Energy
REMUS 620 is equipped with multiple batteries capable of 110 hours and a range of 275 nautical miles per mission, which provides unmatched multi-day endurance, range and stealth. The increased REMUS battery life enables the UUV to execute a significantly longer route to and from a mission area than previously afforded by medium-class vehicles. The energy modules are swappable, allowing for quick turnaround and incorporation of alternative energy sources as they become available.

Intelligence
REMUS 620 is built with modern core electronics, navigation and communication systems, and the vehicle’s open architecture can now be enhanced with HII Odyssey™, a suite of advanced autonomy solutions for intelligent, robotic platforms. The vehicle includes the new Odyssey Mission Management Software.

Multi-Mission
REMUS 620 standard synthetic aperture sonar payload can be replaced or enhanced for multi-mission capabilities, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and cyber and electronic warfare operations.

REMUS 620 builds on the success of HII’s REMUS platforms, with 30 years of innovation and delivery of more than 600 UUVs to 30 countries worldwide, including 14 NATO member countries. The scientific community will also benefit from the payload flexibility and variety of environmental sensors that can be easily added to the base vehicle.

Posted in Maritime, Press Release, Robotics | Comments Off on HII Unveils REMUS 620 Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

US Army Next Generation Robotic Technologies

Wednesday, October 26th, 2022

Ground Robotics are coming to the Army, with experimentation ongoing. Unmanned Air systems have been in use for decades now and advancements in robotics technology is taking things beyond the paradigm of the EOD robot. The move is understandable. You can put a robot many places that you can’t put a human and if something happens, the robot doesn’t bleed.

However, far from unleashing an Army Hunter-Killer systems from the Terminator franchise, the Army envisions forming heterogeneous teams with Soldiers in the loop:

• Large/Small, Air/Ground/Sea, Manned and Unmanned

• Humans in multiple roles (Commanders, Teammates, bystanders)

• Systems with varying levels of autonomy, sensors, processing, and operational payloads

• Collaborative systems with adaptable roles operating in distributed, decentralized, and layered operations

• Increased team-based cognitive and tactical behaviors, dynamic tasking, and real-time distributed perception and decision making

• Operations in complex and contested environments–peer adversarial capabilities

• RAS will operate as part of joint inter-service and multinational teams

During the recent NDIA Future Force Capabilities Conference, Dr. Brett Piekarski and Mr. Elias Rigas of DEVCOM ARL offered a presentation that discussed Next Generation Robotic Technologies.

You can access it here:

Posted in Army, Robotics | Comments Off on US Army Next Generation Robotic Technologies

ONYX Remotely Actuated Weapon

Monday, October 24th, 2022

One of the most promising pieces of equipment meant I saw at AUSA is the Remotely Actuated Weapon by ONYX.

RAW is a Platform-Agnostic Modular Lower Receiver allowing the user to Bring Your Own Upper Receiver.

Currently at Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL6) signifying it has a fully functional prototype or representational model. The RAW itself is less than 4 lbs and can be mounted to static fixtures or air, ground, or maritime platforms including robotic systems.

It can also be used in conjunction with the Onyx X360 gimbal, which provides 360-degree azimuth and 40-degree elevation integrated with intelligent slew-to-cue automation.

Additionally, ONYX is working on image characterization in order to alert the user to what the system is looking at.

Posted in AI / ML, AUSA, Robotics, Sensors, weapons | 1 Comment »

SIG MG 338 x AimLock Remote Weapon Station

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022

The AimLock Remote Weapon Station has arrived on the scene as a lower cost alternative to more comprehensive RWS on the market.

During the recent AUSA expo in Washington, DC, SIG SAUER showcased the AimLock R-M1 paired with the MG 338 machine gun in .338 Norma Mag. The R-M1 can be mounted on a variety of platforms including tripods, buildings, ATVs, UTVs, ground vehicles, boats, and helicopters.

In addition to being remotely operated, the R-M1 integrates AimLock’s auto-targeting technology.

Posted in Advertiser, AUSA, Robotics, weapons | 6 Comments »

Land Forces 22 – Ghost Robotics

Thursday, October 6th, 2022

Ghost Robotics‘ Quadruped Unmanned Ground Vehicles are making a great showing in the Australian Defence Force stand, conducting demos of their capabilities. Available in Australia from Omega Dev Group, ADF currently has two dogs they are using to shape their ground robotics requirements under the Robotic & Autonomous Systems Implementation & Coordination Office (RICO).

Posted in International, Robotics, Tradeshow | 1 Comment »

Land Forces 22 – DefendTex Banshee

Tuesday, October 4th, 2022

Billed as an Land Autonomous Munition Platform, the Banshee from Australia’s DefendTex boasts a top speed of 100 km/hr and a range of 70 km.

This thermal seeking system is designed to look for tanks, drive under them and destroy the tank or anything else it’s set after.

It can also be used to deliver their line of unmanned aerial systems like the D40 via their multibarrel
launch system.

www.defendtex.com

Posted in International, Robotics, Tradeshow | Comments Off on Land Forces 22 – DefendTex Banshee