Dragon Runner is a

military robot Military robots are autonomous robots or remote-controlled mobile robots designed for military applications, from transport to search & rescue and attack. Some such systems are currently in use, and many are under development. The difference b ...

built for urban combat. At 20 pounds (9 kg) it is light enough to be carried and thrown. The original project was funded by the

United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory The United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) was established in 1995, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The organization was originally known as the Commandant's Warfighting Laboratory. The battle lab is part of Combat ...

in conjunction with

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

. It was designed at Carnegie Mellon University while the electronics and thermoplastic shell is developed and made by

QinetiQ QinetiQ ( as in '' kinetic'') is a British defence technology company headquartered in Farnborough, Hampshire. It operates primarily in the defence, security and critical national infrastructure markets and run testing and evaluation capabili ...

, Inc. Early development was conducted by the

United States Naval Research Laboratory The United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. Located in Washington, DC, it was founded in 1923 and conducts basic scientific research, appl ...

, including initial design, production and field-testing.

Technical details

The robot has four wheels, is 15 inches (38 cm) long, less than a foot wide, and 5 inches (13 cm) in height. The robot is very rugged, and can be thrown over fences, up or down stairwells, from a moving vehicle at 45 miles per hour (70 km/h), or even from a third-story window. It does not matter how it lands because neither side is the right side up. However, it was not designed to drive up or down stairs on its own. Instead, Dragon Runner was designed so that it could be carried up the stairway. In January 2010, under a contract worth £12m with

, around 100 Dragon Runners were ordered by the British army to improve the ability of bomb disposal experts to find and deactivate improvised explosive devices on the front line in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. The first in use were then already proving its worth against the threat of

roadside bomb An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional warfare, conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached t ...

s."Dragon Runner Throwbots To Join iRobot PackBots in Afghanistan"
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Use

Dragon Runner is designed for areas that are too dangerous for or inaccessible by human soldiers, particularly

urban terrain Urban terrain is a military term for the representation of the urban environment within the context of urban warfare. Urban terrain includes buildings, roads, highways, ports, rails, airports, subways, and sewage lines. Mouse-holing is one m ...

. Dragon Runner's front-mounted, tilting camera provides a video feed that is relayed back to its master controller by a wireless modem. It provides soldiers with a view around corners and other obstructions that prevent them from seeing hidden enemies. Dragon Runner can be operated in three different modes: *Drive Mode: The robot drives around, transmitting images back to the operator. *Sentry Mode: Dragon Runner remains stationary, using a microphone and sensors that can detect motion up to away. If it detects something, it will alert the operator. *Watch Mode: The robot remains motionless and relays images back to the operator. Modifications include flippers that enable it to climb stairs and treads that can all be snapped on quickly and easily in the field by a soldier with no tools.

References

External links

Dragon Runner at QinetiQ North America Website

Legacy Automatika Website

CMU's snooping robot going to Iraq

Dragon Runner at Defense Review Website

2005 US Navy Press Release including Dragon Runner
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