Repair team keeps robots in the fight

Photo By Ken Scar | Robots wait to be test driven after being repaired at the Joint Robotics Repair Detachment's shop Oct. 27.  

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AFGHANISTAN

10.27.2011

Story by Spc. Ken Scar    

Combined Joint Task Force 1 - Afghanistan

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - Robots are taking over the world. It’s been happening slowly, so slowly that we hardly notice them vacuuming our floors, feeding us soda and candy, washing our cars – even sometimes driving our cars – and doing the million other tasks we use them for nowadays. While the modern world hasn’t quite reached the “Jetsons” level of complete co-dependence on automatons, it’s getting pretty close because if a robot can do something, then humans don’t have to – and that includes getting blown up.

At the Joint Robotics Repair Detachment-Afghanistan, a dedicated group of soldiers, Marines and civilian workers keep the U.S. military’s fleet of robots in the fight, ready to execute the most dangerous tasks, so service men and women don’t have to.

The JRRD-A, an outlet of the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office, sits in a nondescript warehouse just off Disney Drive. Behind its metal garage doors lies a scene straight out of “Star Wars”: A high-tech robot hospital complete with gurneys, individual bays and caring “doctors” who receive and repair between ten and 30 wounded or ailing electronic troopers every week. Droids in various states of disrepair lay about the space waiting for attention.

The technicians of the JRRD-A are trained to repair a broad array of unmanned vehicles in use by U.S. forces, from small surveillance units weighing as little as 8 ounces to the 10-ton M160 mine sweeper. There are robots that can hover and fly, some with arms and hands that can dismantle bombs, robots with speakers and microphones that can talk to people, and others that can climb stairs ... the inventory is much deeper than one might think.

A single bot can be worth $8,000 to more than $250,000, but the technicians of the JRRD can bring them back to life no matter what damage they sustain on the battlefield.

“We can rebuild [a robot] from a screw,” said Sgt. 1st Class Amy Plimpton of Fort Drum, N.Y., who is the S-1 site lead of the JRRD-A, RSJPO.

Not only can Plimpton’s team rebuild any unit from the ground up, they can do it quickly.

“We shoot for a turn-around of four hours,” said Spc. Andrew Ryser of Hubbard, Ohio, who is one of five robot technicians assigned to the Bagram JRRD-A. “But a lot of times we get it done faster than that.”

Any soldier or Marine that shows potential can be recruited to the JRRD-A, said Plimpton, no matter what military occupation specialty they originally signed up for.

“I was going to school to be a dentist,” said Ryser. “But then I heard ‘robots’ and it sounded cool. I said I want to learn about that.”

“There is no MOS for this,” said Plimpton, noting that only 14 service members are currently assigned as robotic technicians in Afghanistan. That number could very well increase as the use of robots becomes more and more crucial in modern-day warfare.

In fact, robots are well on track to outnumber soldiers on the battlefield in the not-too-distant future.

Rick Ramsey, a civilian contractor with Jacobs Corporation who has been with the Army’s robotics program since the beginning, recalls the original fielding of 300 explosive ordinance disposal robots in Iraq in 2005.

“Now there are thousands,” he said. “The biggest change between then and now is the numbers.”

The variety of uses for robots is also expanding, from EOD and reconnaissance uses to surveillance, communications, hazardous materials removal and humanitarian missions. For instance, the same robots the Army uses for EOD operations were used in search and rescue missions at the World Trade Center after 9/11 and in Haiti and Japan after the earthquakes.

“Everybody seems to really appreciate the robots because they can investigate any kind of threat,” said Marine Sgt. Jonathan Dukette, a native of Northwood, N.H., and a robotics technician at the JRRD-A.

Dukette was out of the Marines for two years, working as a maintenance tech for a cable company when he heard about the program.

“I thought; what am I doing? How is this affecting anybody? I wanted to get back to being a Marine and making a difference in the world.”

So he re-joined and came to Afghanistan to work with the U.S. fleet of military robots. He hasn’t regretted his decision at all, he said, because every time a robot comes back damaged or destroyed it means a service member was saved.

“Units use these robots daily, and they become attached,” said Plimpton. “A lot of them give the robots names. They become a part of the team.”

To Plimpton, it’s easy to understand why the men and women who fight America’s wars would have very real, very positive feelings for things made out of wires, metal and plastic.

“Anybody that uses them will tell you – these robots save lives.”

• Date Taken: 10.27.2011
• Date Posted: 10.31.2011 20:36
• Story ID: 79356
• Location: BAGRAM AIR FIELD, AF