Weapons manufacturers are planning the next generation of military robots
using designs based on creatures from the natural world.
BAE Systems had signed a $38m contract with the US Army Research Laboratory
to develop autonomous intelligence-gathering robots for use in military
operations.
These include flying surveillance robots based on dragonflies, and
ground-based systems which mimic spiders.
BEA Systems is a partner in the Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology
Collaborative Technology Alliance which aims to have models on the market by
2013.
"Robotic platforms extend the fighter's senses and reach, providing
operational capabilities that would otherwise be costly, impossible or deadly to
achieve," said Dr Joseph Mait, cooperative agreement manager for the Army
Research Laboratory.
Also involved are the University of California at Berkeley, the California
Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Georgia Institute
of Technology, the University of New Mexico, and North Carolina Agricultural and
Technical State University.
"The technologies that will be developed represent capabilities and
techniques that will influence nearly all of the products that BAE Systems will
develop and produce in the future," said Steve Scalera, programme manager for
BAE Systems in Merrimack, New Hampshire.
"We and our alliance partners have committed our brightest minds to make the
Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology programme a success."
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