ping898
12-12-2006, 02:21 PM
http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/issues/2006/july/BombDisposal.htm
This is an interesting article from the guys using robots to disable IED's in IRAQ and some of the pluses and minuses of the robots currently out there being used...
Five EOD specialists who served in Iraq recently had a chance to address the robot manufacturers, and tell them in sometimes brutally honest terms, what they liked and didn’t like about the systems, and describe the often deadly hazards they faced daily. “They most definitely saved people’s lives,” Navy Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Bryan Bymer said of the robots, at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference. His team responded to 500 calls from April to October 2005 and rendered 328 IEDs safe. They used two of the robots, the Talon, manufactured by Foster-Miller Inc. of Waltham, Mass., and the PackBot, designed by iRobot Corp. of Burlington, Mass. Bymer described a hectic pace with four or five calls per day in areas surrounded by insurgents. Because of these circumstances, “time on target” is crucial, Bymer and the other specialists said. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Shallbetter raved about the Talon’s ability to boot up as soon as his unit arrived on site. The PackBot takes a few minutes to become operational, and while it may only be 90 to 120 seconds, that seems like an eternity when every minute counts, he said.
This is an interesting article from the guys using robots to disable IED's in IRAQ and some of the pluses and minuses of the robots currently out there being used...
Five EOD specialists who served in Iraq recently had a chance to address the robot manufacturers, and tell them in sometimes brutally honest terms, what they liked and didn’t like about the systems, and describe the often deadly hazards they faced daily. “They most definitely saved people’s lives,” Navy Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Bryan Bymer said of the robots, at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement conference. His team responded to 500 calls from April to October 2005 and rendered 328 IEDs safe. They used two of the robots, the Talon, manufactured by Foster-Miller Inc. of Waltham, Mass., and the PackBot, designed by iRobot Corp. of Burlington, Mass. Bymer described a hectic pace with four or five calls per day in areas surrounded by insurgents. Because of these circumstances, “time on target” is crucial, Bymer and the other specialists said. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Shallbetter raved about the Talon’s ability to boot up as soon as his unit arrived on site. The PackBot takes a few minutes to become operational, and while it may only be 90 to 120 seconds, that seems like an eternity when every minute counts, he said.