Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

Marine Corps’ robotic war balls could aid amphibious landings

By atesmeh | April 1, 2015

Share

Since 1775, the United States Marines Corps has been the foremost authority on amphibious warfare, and they’ve perfected the art of establishing beachheads on hostile shores, though amphibious landings remain the most complex and dangerous of all military operations. An amphibious drone from Guardbot Inc. could mitigate some of these dangers.

It looks like a detached B-17 turret (and sort of resembles that new rolling droid from Star Wars), but the Guardbot Spherical Amphibious Robotic Vehicles System can ferry imaging devices, IED and radiation detection sensors, sonars, energetics, and advance radios, and even explosive payloads to its target, securing the area for seaborne troops.

Obviously, a cute contraption like this wouldn’t have done much against entrenched German or Japanese defenders during World War II, but against a technologically inferior foe (aka, now), it could work wonders.

The Guardbot can traverse paved roads, off-road, sand, snow, sloped surfaces, and water, with a top speed of 6 mph on land and 3 mph in the drink. And the Guardbot should remain viable over extended maneuvers, with 8 hours of operation on a single charge.

It won’t win any beauty contests – it’s a ball – but the Guardbot could oblige a number of different military, civilian first-responder, and commercial applications. Sporting a nine-axis stabilization, “pendulum motion” propulsion system, the “robotic war balls” utilize steering algorithms to literally roll around. As Defense One points out, the Guardbot won’t have the wherewithal to disable roadside bombs like the PackBot, but then, its design enables it to reach places that the PackBot (and other conventional military robots) can’t.  

Peter Muhlrad and his Stamford-based research team took seven years to develop the Guardbot, and according to Muhlrad, the spherical bot can be scaled down to units as small as 10 cm and as large as nine feet.

The Guardbot currently operates over a remote 2-8 GHz datalink, but new software that utilizes geographic information system data could enable semi-autonomous operation.

Check out the Guardbot rolling around (and securing hasty beachheads) in a 2012 presentation at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia:

Entries Open: Establish your company as a technology leader. For 50 years, the R&D 100 Awards, widely recognized as the “Oscars of Invention,” have showcased products of technological significance. Learn more.


Filed Under: Aerospace + defense

 

Related Articles Read More >

Ontic acquires Servotek and Westcon product lines from Marsh Bellofram
Flexible rotary shafts support thrust reverser on 150 LEAP 1-A turbofan engines
Drone-mounted inspection breaks barriers for F-35
TriStar, a misunderstood failure of design

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Global supply needs drive increased manufacturing footprint development
  • How to Increase Rotational Capacity for a Retaining Ring
  • Cordis high resolution electronic proportional pressure controls
  • WAGO’s custom designed interface wiring system making industrial applications easier
  • 10 Reasons to Specify Valve Manifolds
  • Case study: How a 3D-printed tool saved thousands of hours and dollars

Design World Podcasts

May 17, 2022
Another view on additive and the aerospace industry
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings