Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Saturday 29 december 2018

Army looks for a few good robots, sparks industry battle

By MATT O’BRIEN saries like China and Russia botics over a series of ma- dooming its prospects for the dispute but said the firm
AP Technology Writer “are investing heavily and jor contracts to build the those contracts by hiring a is still “working very closely
CHELMSFORD, Mass. (AP) very quickly” in the use of Army’s next generation of lobbying firm that spread with U.S. forces,” including
— The Army is looking for aerial, sea and ground ro- ground robots. Those ma- false information to politi- the Air Force, and other
a few good robots. Not to countries. But it’s no longer
fight — not yet, at least — in the running for the lucra-
but to help the men and tive Army opportunities.
women who do. Endeavor is. Looking some-
These robots aren’t taking thing like a miniature forklift
up arms, but the compa- on tank treads, its proto-
nies making them have type called the Scorpion
waged a different kind of has been zipping around a
battle. At stake is a contract test track behind an office
worth almost half a billion park in a Boston suburb.
dollars for 3,000 backpack- Both Endeavor and Qinetiq
sized robots that can de- have strong track records
fuse bombs and scout en- with the U.S. military, hav-
emy positions. Competition ing supplied it with its ear-
for the work has spilled over lier generation of ground
into Congress and federal robots such as Endeavor’s
court. Packbot and Qinetiq’s Tal-
The project and others like it on and Dragon Runner.
could someday help troops After hiding the Scorpion
“look around the corner, behind a shroud at a recent
over the next hillside and Army conference, Bielat
let the robot be in harm’s and engineers at Endeavor
way and let the robot get showed it for the first time
shot,” said Paul Scharre, a publicly to The Associated
military technology expert In this Aug. 28, 2018 photo, software engineer Nicholas Otero, of Woburn, Mass., speaks with a Press in November.
at the Center for a New colleague about features on a Centaur robot, right, at Endeavor Robotics in Chelmsford, Mass. Using a touchscreen con-
American Security. Associated Press troller that taps into the
The big fight over small ro- machine’s multiple camer-
bots opens a window into bots. And now, he added, chines will be designed to cians about the Israeli firm’s as, an engineer navigated
the intersection of technol- “we are doing the same.” be smarter and easier to Chinese investors. A federal it through tunnels, over a
ogy and national defense Such a shift will be a “huge deploy than the remote- judge dismissed Robote- playground-like structure
and shows how fear that game-changer for com- controlled rovers that am’s lawsuit in April. “They and through an icy pool of
China could surpass the bat,” said Scharre, who have helped troops dis- alleged that we had some- water, and used its grabber
U.S. drives even small tech credits Milley’s leadership able bombs for more than how defamed them,” said to pick up objects.
startups to play geopolitics for the push. 15 years. The biggest con- Endeavor CEO Sean Bielat, It’s a smaller version of its
to outmaneuver rivals. It The promise of such big tract — worth $429 million a former Marine who twice predecessor, the Packbot,
also raises questions about Pentagon investments in — calls for mass producing ran for Congress as a Re- which was first used by
whether defense technolo- robotics has been a boon 25-pound robots that are publican. “What we had U.S. troops in Afghanistan
gy should be sourced solely for U.S. defense contractors light, easily maneuverable done was taken publicly in 2002 and later became
to American companies to and technology startups. and can be “carried by available documents and one of soldiers’ essential
avoid the risk of tampering But the situation is murkier infantry for long distances presented them to mem- tools for safely disabling im-
by foreign adversaries. for firms with foreign ties. without taxing the soldier,” bers of Congress because provised explosives in Iraq.
Regardless of which com- Concerns that popular said Bryan McVeigh, proj- we think there’s a reason to Bielat said the newer Scor-
panies prevail, the compe- commercial drones made ect manager for force be concerned about Chi- pion and Centaur robots
tition foreshadows a future by Chinese company DJI projection at the Army’s nese influence on defense are designed to be easier
in which robots, which are could be vulnerable to spy- research and contracting technologies.” for the average soldier to
already familiar military ing led the Army to ban center in Warren, Michi- The lobbying firm, Boston- use quickly without ad-
tools, become even more their use by soldiers in 2017. gan. based Sachem Strate- vanced technical training.
common. The Army’s im- And in August, the Pen- Other bulkier prototypes gies, circulated a memo “Their primary job is to be a
mediate plans alone envi- tagon published a report are tank-sized unmanned to members of the House rifle squad member,” Bielat
sion a new fleet of 5,000 that said China is conduct- supply vehicles that have Armed Services Commit- said. “They don’t have time
ground robots of varying ing espionage to acquire been tested in recent tee. Taking up Endeavor’s to mess with the robot.
sizes and levels of autono- foreign military technolo- weeks in the rough and cause was Rep. Seth Moult- They’re going to demand
my. The Marines, Navy and gies — sometimes by using wintry terrain outside Fort on, a Massachusetts Dem- greater levels of autono-
Air Force are making similar students or researchers as Drum, New York. ocrat — and, like Bielat, my.”
investments. “procurement agents and A third $100 million contract a Marine veteran — who It will be a while, however,
“My personal estimate is intermediaries.” At a De- — won by Endeavor in late wrote a letter to a top mili- before any of these robots
that robots will play a signifi- cember defense expo in 2017 — is for a midsized re- tary official in December become fully autonomous.
cant role in combat inside Egypt, some U.S. firms spot- connaissance and bomb- 2016 urging the Army to The Defense Department
of a decade or a decade ted what they viewed as disabling robot nicknamed “examine the evidence of is cautious about develop-
and a half,” the chief of Chinese knock-offs of their the Centaur. Chinese influence” before ing battlefield machines
the Army, Gen. Mark Mil- robots. The competition escalat- awarding the robot con- that make their own de-
ley, said in May at a Sen- The China fears came to ed into a legal fight when tracts. cisions. That sets the U.S.
ate hearing where he ap- a head in a bitter compe- Roboteam accused En- Six other lawmakers later apart from efforts by China
pealed for more money to tition between Israeli firm deavor, a spinoff of iRo- raised similar concerns. and Russia to design artifi-
modernize the force. Roboteam and Massachu- bot, which makes Room- Roboteam CEO Elad Levy cially intelligent warfighting
Milley warned that adver- setts-based Endeavor Ro- ba vacuum cleaners, of declined to comment on arsenals.q