[Engineering Feature]
Keeping Troops Out Of Harm's Way, Technically Speaking
Emerging technologies aim to improve safety and emergency care on battlefields and beyond.
In one memorable scene in the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, the giant robot Gort picks up the body of his companion Klaatu and cradles the alien visitor in his arms. The robot then carries Klaatu back to the safety of their flying saucer for life-restoring treatment. Now, life is imitating art.
A giant mobile robot developed by Vecna Technologies is able to use its arms to rescue injured soldiers from the battlefield. "I am very excited about the potential of this robot to not only save lives by going out and rescuing people, but to save lives by doing jobs that are unnecessarily dangerous," says Daniel Theobald, president and chief technology officer of Vecna.
Most military-funded research focuses on developing or improving weapons systems. But as the nation continues fighting a dual-front war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of Defense is increasingly turning its attention inward and actively supporting research designed to improve soldiers' well-being. "The military has shown that they're committed to soldiers' safety," says Theobald.
IN GORT'S FOOTSTEPS Vecna's robot mirrors much of Gort's functionality—except for the ability to fire disintegrator rays. Funded by the Army's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, the Battlefield Extraction Robot (BEAR) walks on two legs, climbs stairs, and lifts objects equivalent to the size and weight of a fully outfitted soldier (Fig. 1).
Theobald notes that the remotely controlled BEAR is markedly different from other military robots, which are either vehicle-sized or small enough to be toys. "There wasn't anything in the middle," he says. "There was a real lack of robotic capability that addressed this critical area—a robot that can... actually interact with the environment, lift things, carry things, move things of significant weight."
A prototype BEAR incorporated a single hydraulic arm that could lift nearly 300 lb. Vecna recently demonstrated an improved model that cradled a human-sized dummy in two arms as it climbed up and down stairs. The most recent system's arms function like a forklift, sliding under objects and people before lifting them up. Theobald says future models will include articulated hands for gently scooping up casualties.
Standing 6 ft tall, BEAR features an array of high-tech hardware, including microprocessors, analog-to-digital converters, optical encoders, pressure sensors, and ultrasonic and infrared range finders. "In the current head we have two cameras—a night-vision camera and an active, infrared camera that can actually see heat," says Theobald.
For a big guy, BEAR is surprisingly mobile. Wheels on its feet, knees, and hips allow it to roll smoothly over level ground. Alternatively, thigh- and shin-mounted tracks enable it to move over rough terrain or stairs in a crouching or kneeling position.
The robot's most incongruous feature is its teddy-bear-like head, which is designed to comfort and reassure casualties (or perhaps help them laugh through their pain). "The troops will get used to it," says Theobald. "The troops will be dependent on [the robot] and will have a connection to it."
Besides rescuing fallen soldiers, BEAR could also be used for various dangerous military and civilian tasks that would expose humans to excessive risk, such as removing unexploded ammo, patrolling a nuclear facility, or retrieving important items from a burning building. "OSHA and mine safety people are very interested," says Theobald.
A SHOT IS HEARD While Vecna's robot is designed to rescue wounded soldiers, other new technology may keep troops from getting injured in the first place. An associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University, Rob Maher is investigating how sound— specifically, the sound of gunshots—can save soldiers from sniper fire and other battlefield hazards. "Over the years there has been a lot of interest in trying to figure out where a bullet is going once it comes out of a rifle," he says.
Maher's goal is to pave the way for devices that would tell users, almost instantly, a gunshot's direction and distance. A soldier could then pinpoint a sniper's exact location after just a single shot was fired. Such a unit would feature two or more microphones to detect the gunshot from slightly different positions, as well as a small computer to make the necessary calculations.
"Sound travels at a relatively slow rate compared to the speed of electronics these days, so determining the relative time of the soundwaves' arrival at those different microphones is not particularly difficult any more," says Maher. "Using a computer to figure out the time differences and then predicting for a given trajectory how long that soundwave path would be, that's the procedure."
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