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Army to field autonomous security guard robot

The Army will soon field a security-guard robot that can walk its beat without human intervention, avoiding fixed and moving obstacles and detect intruders up to 300 meters away.

The 9-foot, 3,500-pound Mobile Detection Assessment Response System (MDARS) uses inertial and GPS navigation to roll around at 20 mph while beaming radar and infrared images to a control station, say Army and General Dynamics Robotics Systems officials. The MDARS radar can scan the surrounding area out to 300 meters twice a second, said GDRS programmers.

“Most of the robots we have clearing caves in Iraq and Afghanistan are tele-operated, meaning a human must direct their every move. This robot uses semi-autonomous navigation and can avoid obstacles and find its own way. This is a significant step forward,” said a DoD official with the Physical Security Action Group.

The group spends about $40 million to $60 million a year to develop force-protection technologies, and is currently immersed in efforts to find joint-service interoperability among manned and unmanned assets.

The official said MDARS would be the Army’s first land-based semi-autonomous robot.

GD is negotiating a deal, expected to total about $70 million, to provide 24 to 30 robots, said Brian Frederick, who manages the MDARS program at GDRS. The deal includes spare robots, along with supporting systems, training and technical services.

The robots themselves cost roughly $400,000 apiece, depending on the number ordered, said Frederick.

“The MDARS can randomly patrol a certain area or drive along a predetermined path. It can detect intruders using the radar, and send the camera or video image back to the guard station, which can be several miles away from the patrol area,” Frederick said.

Six MDARS robots are slated to go to the Hawthorne Army depot in Nevada, with others planned for the Letterkenny Army depot near Carlisle, Pa.; the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, McAlester, Okla.; the Crane Army ammunition activity in Indiana; the Blue Grass Army depot in Richmond, Ky.; and a strategic mobility logistics base in Charleston, S.C.

GDRS also is working on autonomous navigation technology for the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) under a $236 million deal signed in 2005.

Later this month, the DoD’s Joint Force Protection Advanced Security System office will experiment at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., with MDARS, UAVs and communications equipment in an effort to develop joint standards for security systems.

The Army plans to boost MDARS’ top speed to beyond 30 mph, extend its radar range to farther away than 300 meters, and toughen it for war zones.

The Energy Department may buy MDARS to protect nuclear facilities, and the State Department is looking at putting some of them around the world, said the DoD official.