Crusher is a

autonomous In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

off-road

Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle An unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) is a vehicle that operates while in contact with the ground and without an onboard human presence. UGVs can be used for many applications where it may be inconvenient, dangerous, or impossible to have a human op ...

developed by researchers at the Carnegie Mellon University's

National Robotics Engineering Center The National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) is an operating unit within the Robotics Institute (RI) of Carnegie Mellon University. NREC works closely with government and industry clients to apply robotic technologies to real-world processes ...

for

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Ad ...

. It is a follow up on the previous Spinner vehicle. DARPA's technical name for the Crusher is ''Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle and Perceptor Integration System'', and the whole project is known by the acronym UPI, which stands for ''Unmanned Ground Combat Vehicle PerceptOR Integration''.

Capabilities

The robot can travel over rough terrain, such as vertical walls more than high, wooded slopes, and rocky creekbeds. It can turn 180 degrees in place, raise and lower its suspension by , more than one-half the diameter of the wheels, and lean to the side. The Crusher can carry of combined armor and cargo. According to Stephen Welby, director of DARPA's Tactical Technology Office, "This vehicle can go into places where, if you were following in a Humvee, you'd come out with spinal injuries." The Crusher can see enemy troops from over away with its cameras. The Crusher can climb up slopes of more than 40 degrees and travel with more than 30 degrees of slope to the side. When pushed to its maximum speed, the Crusher can travel at , but it can only sustain that speed for less than seven seconds.

Construction

These robots have

space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure ( 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometric pattern. Space frames can be used to span large areas wit ...

s (made of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

and

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...

) and skid plates to protect the robot from heavy blows from objects like boulders. The Crusher also has a hybrid engine capable of travelling several miles on one battery charge. The diesel engine then turns on to continue powering the Crusher and to recharge the battery module. This diesel engine comes from a diesel

Volkswagen Jetta The Volkswagen Jetta () is a compact car/small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen since 1979. Positioned to fill a sedan niche above the firm's Golf hatchback, it has been marketed over seven generations, variously as the Atlant ...

Controls

The Crusher has no driving controls because it is autonomous. Instead, the operators drive the Crusher with video game controllers. While driving between its waypoints via

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

, the Crusher continuously attempts to find the fastest and easiest path to its destination. For example, if it encounters an object more than high or a gorge more than deep, the Crusher will find a way around it. The camera system uses five 1.9 megapixel color cameras, which give an overall field of view of 200 degrees horizontally and 30 degrees vertically at a resolution of over four times that of a normal television set. Currently, the Crusher sends data back to an operator via a long wide

fiber optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

Purpose

The Crusher could be used for a number of missions considered highly dangerous for soldiers, such as

fire support Fire support is defined by the United States Department of Defense as " Fires that directly support land, maritime, amphibious, and special operations forces to engage enemy forces, combat formations, and facilities in pursuit of tactical and o ...

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops ( skirmishe ...

, or

medevac Medical evacuation, often shortened to medevac or medivac, is the timely and efficient movement and en route care provided by medical personnel to wounded being evacuated from a battlefield, to injured patients being evacuated from the scene of a ...

; as a supply mule; or as a sentry. John Bares, one of the people on the development team for the Crusher, mentions that medevac would be a good use for the robot because it could go into the battlefield under fire to scoop up fallen soldiers. There are no plans to put the Crusher vehicle into service. Instead, it will be used as the base for future unmanned vehicle designs.DARPA’s Crusher Drives Itself, Laughs at Your Puny “Traffic”
- Gizmodo.com, March 13, 2012

References

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External links

Path sampling for the crusherA brochure with pictures of the crusher
Unmanned ground combat vehicles Carnegie Mellon University DARPA Proposed weapons 2006 robots Robots of the United States Six-wheeled robots