Dragon Runner Shows Up At Wedding As Ring Bearer

May 9, 2012

Technology Editor Bill Wong and his wife Ann are the proud parents at the Wong-Cressman wedding that had a robot ring bearer.

William Wong Blog

My wife Ann and I gave away our daughter Laura this past weekend. It was actually a good thing because we now have a new son-in-law, Alex Cressman. The wedding was wonderful with lots of fun twists but I thought you might like to hear about one of them.

Laura works for Qinetiq as a mechanical engineer and designed the robotic arm on the Dragon Runner unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). I have written about it before (see Looking For Innovation? It’s At AUVSI). The 10 pound version flies (when tossed without the arm) rather nicely. It is more likely to be found in the battlefield removing bombs.

So Laura had an "in" with Qinetiq that graciously loaned a Dragon Runner for the wedding. I just happened to snap the picture of my wife with the Dragon Runner before the ceremony (Fig. 1). Luckily the ring box fit nicely into the robot's claw.

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Figure 1. "Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope", last minute tips from my wife Ann.

As I said, it was a great wedding and Laura was radiant. Okay. I am a bit biased. I don't have the photo of the Dragon Runner giving the ring box to the best man because I was not up front at the time but I know there is one floating around somewhere.The music at the time was Mr. Roboto. Laura did get a little tux for the Dragon Runner (Fig. 2). It was not quite a perfect fit but it worked.

2. Alex and Laura with the Dragon Runner.

Just in case you don't check out the Dragon Runner on the Qinetiq site, it is not an autonomous robot. One of Laura's friends from work was wearing the backpack and using the control panel to control the Dragon Runner. That included the Dragon Runner's entry onto the dance floor when the wedding party was introduced. It zipped in and did a "Saturday Night Fever" spin and pump.

By the way, did I mention the bagpipers? And the minister's name: James Kirk.

About the Author

William Wong Blog | Senior Content Director

Bill Wong covers Digital, Embedded, Systems and Software topics at Electronic Design. He writes a number of columns, including Lab Bench and alt.embedded, plus Bill's Workbench hands-on column. Bill is a Georgia Tech alumni with a B.S in Electrical Engineering and a master's degree in computer science for Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

He has written a dozen books and was the first Director of PC Labs at PC Magazine. He has worked in the computer and publication industry for almost 40 years and has been with Electronic Design since 2000. He helps run the Mercer Science and Engineering Fair in Mercer County, NJ.