Intelligent Automation, Inc. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: Today, various mobile robots have already demonstrated their effectiveness in Afghanistan

Description

Today, various mobile robots have already demonstrated their effectiveness in Afghanistan and Iraq, especially in standoff EOD operations. However, the current limitations are that: 1) they are too expensive to be widely distributed across the theaters in order to protect small dismounted units, 2) they lack truly reliable sensors to speedily identify IEDs with a tolerable false alarm rate, and 3) they do not support practical intelligent behaviors in order to expedite IEDD operations. To address these technological challenges, we propose to develop the SNIP, a low-cost robotic IED defeat package to be widely utilized by small dismounted units and help them expedite their operations. The main elements of the proposed SNIP system are: a) Intelligent Behavior Engine: an integrated software framework that supports the development, simulation and control of intelligent behaviors; b) a mid-sized mobile robot platform equipped with various onboard navigation sensors, cameras, etc., together with an OCU designed to provide efficient operator situational awareness; c) a state-of-art IED detection sensor, which will be enhanced during the Phase II effort; and d) effective, low cost defeat mechanism. SNIP is envisioned to provide a high performance solution for IED detection and neutralization in a cost effective package.