New iRobot UGV revealed

7th April 2011 - 17:26 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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iRobot has unveiled pre-production prototypes of its 110 FirstLook small, light and throwable unmanned ground vehicle (UGV).

Providing ‘hasty situational awareness’, the system is designed to perform persistent observation and investigate confined spaces, according to a statement released by the company on 6 April.

Its size and abilities make it suitable ‘for a range of infantry missions and special operations’ - it weighs less than 2.3kg, is 25cm long, can travel at 5.5kph, survive a 4.6m drop onto concrete, and is waterproof up to 0.9m.

The company said it is portable, rugged, mobile and flexible, and has a runtime of six hours on a typical mission, and some ten hours of stationary video monitoring.

‘With four built-in cameras and two-way audio communication, 110 FirstLook provides multi-direction situational awareness. It also has digital mesh networking capabilities, allowing multiple robots to relay radio communications over greater distances,’ said the statement.

The system uses a wrist-mounted, touch-screen operator control unit (OCU) with a built-in radio.

The UGV allows the integration of specialised cameras, thermal imagers, chem-bio-radiation sensors and destructive payloads weighing up to a half pound. It can climb steps up to 8 inches high, go over curbs, self-right when it is flipped over, and uses IR illumination in low or no light operations.

The UGV will be demonstrated to military and law enforcement personnel over the next several months, iRobot said, and will be available for delivery to customers as of 2012.