4 ms·
You are off by at least an order of magnitude in your price estimates, milspec rugged robots are expensive but on the order of $30,000 - $100,000 each not $1 mi
by Game_Ender 15y ago
You are off by at least an order of magnitude in your price estimates, milspec rugged robots are expensive but on the order of $30,000 - $100,000 each not $1 million. Now those are complex systems with articulated arms, complex comms, and full control station style remote. If the military spec'd out a simple system, like the one in this article, it would cost much less. An existing contractor like iRobot would be perfectly capable of producing it at a low cost. They make the existing pack bots used by the military as well as cheaper consumer grade robots like the Roomba.
- mturmon 15y agoI totally agree. Here's the Packbot from iRobot who make Roomba: http://www.irobot.com/gi/ground/510_PackBot http://www.irobot.com/gi/ground/510_PackBot They're slow. The full military version is $120K but simple versions are half that. Another analogy is the Firstlook: http://www.irobot.com/gi/ground/110_FirstLook/ http://www.irobot.com/gi/ground/110_FirstLook/ (There's a nice video). Also commercially available: http://www.qinetiq-na.com/products-talon.htm http://www.qinetiq-na.com/products-talon.htm http://www.qinetiq-na.com/products-dragon-runner.htm http://www.qinetiq-na.com/products-dragon-runner.htm All but the FirstLook, which is new, are in routine use. The article is sensationalist by not saying that.