The Gladiator Robot's First Public Appearance

By Roland Piquepaille

Two years ago, I told you that the Gladiator Robot will join the Marine Corps. Now, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the six-wheeled combat robot, designed and developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), made its debut last week. This new U.S. unmanned fighting vehicle can fire machine guns, nonlethal sting balls or tear gas. It could be used for reconnaissance, surveillance and direct-fire missions. CMU will deliver six prototypes of the three-ton robots by 2007 to the Marine Corps, which could deploy about 200 Gladiator vehicles in combat zones around 2009 if the prototypes work as intended. Each Gladiator should cost between $300,000 and $400,000. Read more...

Before going further, let's take a look at the Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle (TUGV) (Credit: GlobalSecurity.org).

You'll find more details about this unmanned vehicle on this page and here is a link to a larger version of the above image.

Now, here are some more details from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

In February, CMU beat out defense giant Lockheed Martin for a $26.4 million Defense Department contract to produce a line of six Gladiator TUGV prototypes.

The goal is to build big remote-controlled reconnaissance robots capable of carrying out search-and-discovery missions in potentially hostile areas, to warn soldiers of the dangers ahead, and to protect them from mine fields, craters, trenches, hidden enemies or even greater threats such as chemical, biological or nuclear traps.

And even if this robot becomes a deadly weapon against enemies, it will be operated as a big toy.

Designed to fit into a military Humvee for transport, the Gladiator will be driven remotely by a soldier using a Sony PlayStation-like joystick. The soldier will wear a special helmet fitted with an eyepiece that serves as a camera, allowing the soldier to see what the robot sees, even though it could be miles away.

And for a remote-controlled 'toy,' the Gladiator will have some real weapons.

The latest Gladiator prototype has containers for hand grenades that can be used for clearing obstacles and creating a footpath on difficult terrain for soldiers following behind. It also features what looks like organ pipes to produce smoke, and it has a mount on top for a medium-size machine gun or multipurpose assault weapon.

In another article, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gives some additional details -- and a good punch line.

Gladiator runs on diesel fuel, but can also operate silently when placed in hybrid-electric mode, said Jeff Farbacher, Gladiator project manager for Carnegie Mellon University in Oakland. Gladiator can be outfitted to fire non-lethal "sting balls" or tear gas, along with standard machine guns. Gladiator can also be used on windswept tundras or steaming jungles.

Farbacher estimated one Gladiator costs between $300,000 to $400,000. "If you have a son, it's a bargain," he said.

I hope he meant that the total costs for a boy to be well-educated are in the $300K range, and not that a kid needs for about $300K of weapons to go to the university...

Source: Corilyn Shropshire, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 5, 2005; and various web sites

Related stories can be found in the following categories.

• Military Applications
  
• Robotics
  
• Technology
  

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