Army Developing Family of Explosive Ordnance Disposal Robots.

• Author: Lee, Connie

The Army is establishing three major robotics programs of record to counter explosive devices.

As the service works to integrate more autonomous systems into its force, it has marked the common robotic system-individual, the common robotic system-heavy and the man transportable robotic system increment 2 as three programs to be part of a family of explosive ordnance robots with the same interoperability profile.

Endeavor Robotics and QinetiQ North America were recently awarded contracts for the engineering and manufacturing development phase for CRS(I), which is the lightest platform of the three.

The Navy is the executive agent in the military of EOD technology and was concurrently developing a similar family of three robots--the Advanced EOD Robotic System. Both Air Force and Army officials expressed frustration to National Defense in the past with the Navy's slow pace of development. The AEDROS program awarded a contract for a backpackable increment 1 robot after more than a decade of development, but the Navy last year canceled increments 2 and 3.

The Army's version is designed to be 25 pounds and able to fit in soldiers' rucksacks. CRS(TJ is designed to have a suite of changeable payloads, according to an Army news release. The system is intended to be used for remote chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense (CBRN) detection work and to provide soldiers with a "safe standoff distance from potentially hazardous threats," the release noted.

Production is slated to begin in the second quarter of fiscal year 2019, and the first unit is scheduled to be equipped in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020. The Army plans to field 3,258 of the systems to infantry, engineer, EOD and CBRN units, the release stated.

Tom Frost, president of Endeavor Robotics, said the company's submission for the program meets the Army's requirement and is compliant with the service's interoperability profile. The system is "based on all the lessons learned that we've had over the years delivering over 6,000 robots," he said. Additionally, it is in a similar weight class as a system already developed by the company called the SUGV robot, which weighs less than 30 pounds, he noted.

"We've taken all those lessons learned and folded them into this new robot as an offering, and we spent millions of dollars in [research and development] to put this together to make sure that we've got the system that the Army can use," he said. Endeavor Robotics, formerly...