Military Adapts Robotics Operation to Afghanistan

By: Brett Davis

The shifting military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan is also shifting the way the military repairs its ground robots, says a U.S. Army project manager.

"The static operation in Iraq, bring the robots to use and we'll fix them, doesn't work in Afghanistan," said Jeff Jaczkowski, deputy program manager of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office at U.S. Army Tank-automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM).

Jaczkowski spoke at the opening day of AUVSI's Unmanned Systems Program Review 2010, which covered ground systems. The program continues Wednesday and Thursday on air and maritime systems, respectively.

Afghanistan's infrastructure is in worse shape than Iraq's, so it's easier to bring the repair people to the robots. To do that, the RS JPO has embedded repair teams with troops and has set up mobile repair teams that can visit Forward Operating Bases.

Logistically, that means that some user-replaceable parts are now stored with the units, where soldiers can do things like fix robot treads or wheels.

More robots are headed to Afghanistan as they leave Iraq; last summer there were 500 there, now there are more than 1,250, he said. One of the newest is a variant of the iRobot Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV), called the Mini EOD (explosive ordnance disposal). Dubbed the "Devil Pup" by the Marine Corps, a few dozen are in place now, with about 250 due in theater by this summer, he said.

Looking ahead, the Army is studying its future robot needs. Jon Bornstein, the chief of the Robotics Systems Division at the Army Research Laboratory, said ARL is looking at a variety of behaviors and systems, including ways to give robots greater autonomy to operate in areas with “both good guys, bad guys and noncombatants.”

The robots will also need to be more self-aware. For instance, a robot could run a diagnostic program and be able to tell its human teammates if it's "sick and can't do something ... That is a common theme; how to make the robot function like an average human does," he said.