Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center to unveil futuristic unmanned ground combat vehicles

Citation

(2006), "Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center to unveil futuristic unmanned ground combat vehicles", Industrial Robot, Vol. 33 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ir.2006.04933fab.006

Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center to unveil futuristic unmanned ground combat vehicles

Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center to unveil futuristic unmanned ground combat vehicles

Keywords: Robotics, Armed forces

The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), part of the Robotics Institute in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, has unveiled “Crusher,” a groundbreaking new autonomous robotic vehicle, and display its predecessor, “Spinner,” in a special program at NREC headquarters. The 6.5-ton Crusher combines Spinner's strength and mobility with autonomy capabilities developed under another project called PerceptOR to create an extremely robust unmanned ground combat vehicle that can operate in complex terrain. It's designed to help keep military personnel out of harm's way. The work is funded by the US Army and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Experts say Crusher and Spinner represent technologies six to ten years ahead of their time and give an unprecedented glimpse into the future capabilities of unmanned military vehicles. The Crusher platform will influence unmanned vehicle design efforts funded by the Army's Future Combat System as it undergoes extensive field evaluations every quarter under the purview of the Army and DARPA. For more information on Spinner, see www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects//ugcv/. For background on Crusher, see www.rec.ri.cmu.edu/projects/upi/index.htm.