One measure of how effective battlefield robots have become, says a top Pentagon robotics official, is that the enemy has begun to target them. "The enemy realizes that if they take out [the robot], they can really hurt our capabilities," said Cliff Hudson, who directs the Joint Robotics Program for the Department of Defense. Reconnaissance robots, such as the backpackable Dragon Runner developed by Carnegie Mellon University, and those that dispose of unexploded mines and bombs have shown that they save soldiers' lives, Hudson said. The success with small ground robots, as well as with unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, has bolstered confidence as the armed forces move toward larger vehicles, such as Carnegie Mellon's 1-ton Gladiator recon robot, which will have longer range and, eventually, operate autonomously.
A dozen Dragon Runners [pictured] were built for the U.S. Marines, which deployed them to Iraq a year ago. The four-wheeled device is only a little more than a foot long and not quite a foot wide and weighs 9 pounds. It can be thrown over walls, out a three-story window or up a flight of stairs; the flat, 5-inch-high machine can operate whichever way it lands. "It's quickly become a critical piece of equipment," Hudson said, adding that it provides a safe means to look around corners or explore rooms.