Photo By Sgt. Victor Ayala | A Talon robot peers through the window of a suspicious vehicle as Soldiers from 4th...... read more read more
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FORT POLK, La. — Soldiers with 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, met two special allies in the Army's battle against the number one killer of Soldiers in theater, the improvised explosive device. The Soldiers were introduced to the Multi-functional, Agile Remote-Controlled Robot and the Talon, robots designed for IED investigation, during their counter-IED training at Fort Polk's Joint Readiness Training Center, June 12.
The Soldiers spent the first part of the day learning the specifics of the robots' uses, capabilities and limitations through a classroom presentation. Earl Dunn, contractor and instructor with the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office based in Warren, Mi., was the voice of experience as a retired Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal specialist. During his class, he stressed the importance of robotics with a story about a friend who goes by the name 'Lefty'.
"James McKelvey was stationed with a National Guard EOD unit in Michigan. During his 2003 deployment, an IED was found and his team went in wearing bomb-suits to disrupt it. He thought he had a successful mission but found he had actually disabled a hoax device. The real IED was beneath it. It was command detonated, taking his right hand and damaging some of the left side of his face," Dunn said.
It wasn't the last time McKelvey would be wounded by an IED, Dunn explained.
"They triaged him and put him on a Humvee for evacuation. As the Humvee was evacuating him, it was hit by another roadside bomb," he said. "Things like this happened because we didn't have a good enough robot."
During his 20-year Army career, Dunn watched the landscape of EOD change dramatically with the advent of robotics and is pleased with how it's come along, but what pleases Dunn most is passing on the information to the Soldiers of today's Army and training them on the latest and greatest technology.
"They're so attentive and willing to learn. It's nice to know I'm passing on information to the students, but when I see how hungrily they're taking this in and how attentive they are, it makes my job that much more fulfilling," Dunn said.
Once the classroom portion of the training was done, Soldiers split into groups of three to assemble their robot and take a shot at operating it.
The first robot they trained on was the MARCbot, a durable, lightweight reconnaissance robot outfitted with a single camera mounted to a jointed boom arm.
"The MARCbot is purely a reconnaissance vehicle for line units in Iraq and Afghanistan. It gives Soldiers up to 300 meters of stand-off distance from a suspicious site. This allows the soldier to investigate a suspicious object and interrogate it from a safe distance," said Harold Cummings, an instructor with the RSJPO.
In the spirit of making this sophisticated piece of equipment user-friendly, an Xbox-360 video game controller is used to manipulate the MARCbot once the system is powered up. The operator can then use the laptop control unit to watch the video feed sent from the robot's camera, allowing a Soldier to peer into a suspicious vehicle from over three football fields away.
The Soldiers used the robot to investigate a number of items along a stretch of road. From a pile of rubble to an abandoned vehicle, each item represented a typical hiding spot for IEDs.
Next, they trained on the Talon, a larger, more rugged robot with a greater capability to interrogate IEDs.
"The Talon gives us the gripper capability, so we can do more than just see an item," said Dunn, "We can manipulate it also."
The Talon can manage a straight lift of up to 25 lb., and drag up to 200 lb. This ability is used to clear debris for further investigation of a site, interrogate a possible IED, or even move explosives to an identified IED for demolition. Soldiers found creative ways to master its capabilities. Some tried picking up stones and passing them from Talon to Talon. One group even tried to open a vehicle door with the grippers.
For many of the Soldiers, the training stuck because it was different than what they're used to - it was fun.
"It's like a remote-controlled car when you were a kid, especially with the Xbox controller. It's really applicable to us from the Nintendo generation," said Spc. Thomas Keenan, a Riverhead, N.Y., native, and infantryman with B Co., 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment.
When the fun was over and the robots were packed up, the Soldiers understood they had discovered more than a cool toy; but also a life-saving tool with real battlefield value.
"As an infantryman, you're always out there, so I'm much more comfortable having this piece of equipment so I don't get messed up out there. You know, anything that can help you in the fight," Keenan said.
The MARCbot and Talon robots have been used in theater for nearly seven years, with a service record that only helps to enforce Soldiers' confidence in the equipment.
"In 2007, 1600 robots were destroyed in Afghanistan. One destroyed machine equals, on average, two Soldiers who would've had to approach the unexploded IED. Clearly, these robots save lives." Cummings said.
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 06.16.2009 19:25 |
| Story ID: | 35183 |
| Location: | FORT POLK, US |
| Web Views: | 891 |
| Downloads: | 576 |
This work, Using the Multi-functional, Agile Remote-Controlled Robot, by SGT Victor Ayala, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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