• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

ARCIC and TARDEC release robotics strategy

Mar 24

By John Harlow/TRADOC News Service

FORT MONROE, Va. (TRADOC News Service, March 23, 2009) - The Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) and the Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC) recently announced a jointly-published "Robotics Strategy" white paper. The strategy looks at ways to further enable the Army's 1.1 million Soldiers.

"This concept paper should generate thought about warfighting outcomes and what robotics will do for our Soldiers," said Lt. Gen. Michael Vane, director of ARCIC. "We might someday come up with information technology doctrine and robot doctrine. I am starting out with the idea of having a technology-enabled human."

Robotics technology offers the potential to realize three critical opportunities for the Army's current force and its future force. First, robotics is being used to reduce risks to Soldiers. Second, robotics-enabled platforms can reduce the workload on Soldiers today and into the future by performing routine tasks that don't require full-time human intervention and enabling sustained high-tempo operations by removing humans from tasks such as routine surveillance of bases. Third, robotics can enable entirely new capabilities for extended-range or stand-off reconnaissance operations in areas of interest with unattended ground sensors, ARCIC combat developers said.

They added that this advance in robotics technology offers relief for the human dimension in operations.

More than three dozen robotics specialists with knowledge of industry, academia and Department of Defense robotics research and development assessed 32 Soldier tasks for robotic feasibility based in the level of complexity, maturity of technology and estimated cost and time to develop a prototype.

The results from this white paper will be used to inform three documents: the Army's input to the next OSD Unmanned Systems Roadmap; TRADOC's Warfighter Analysis and Outcomes; and the next revision of TRADOC Pamphlet 525-66 (Force Operating Capabilities).