There is coverage of the BomBot in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

	V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Post-Gazette A BomBot closes in on a mock improvised explosive device during a demonstration yesterday in Fairmont, W.Va. Click photo for larger image.

Zipping over the pavement on saucer-sized black wheels, the remote-controlled truck at first glance appears to be a souped-up version of a battery-powered sidewalk toy.

But by next week, hundreds of these metal-sheathed, camera-equipped robots will be hitting the ground in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers will use them to destroy lethal improvised explosive devices from a distance.The remote-controlled BomBot, aims to provide U.S. forces with a safer, more cost-effective way to detonate the improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, that increasingly are used by opponents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The camera-equipped, 20-inch-by-20-inch vehicle works like a miniature dump truck to deliver explosive charges that will detonate IEDs, which have been blamed for the deaths of about 800 U.S. soldiers since the war in Iraq began three years ago.

Soldiers in combat zones will place a 10-pound packet containing C4 explosive in the BomBot’s bed, then use its remote control to steer it to an IED and to dump out the packet. After summoning the BomBot back, its operator detonates the packet and, with it, the IED.

The devices are being built by the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation and its subsidiary, Innovative Response Technologies Inc., at the Interstate 79 Technology Park in Fairmont.

Several other firms and organizations from West Virginia and Pennsylvania also participated in development and construction of the small, light robots intended to replace slower, costlier and more cumbersome devices now in use.

Among them are the National Center for Defense Robotics on the North Side, which funded and managed research and development of the BomBot’s radio controllers, and Nomadio Inc. of Philadelphia, which manufactures the radio system.

“[BomBots] can be rapidly deployed and carried in small vehicles. Many people can be trained to use them,” said Brad DeRoos, the foundation’s vice president of research and development. “[They are] going to save lives, there’s no doubt about that.”

The first shipments of 200 BomBots left the technology park this week and will be followed by 2,300 others commissioned in a $9.6 million contract awarded Jan. 17 by the U.S. Navy. The Navy oversees development of technology for disposing of explosives for all service branches, said Keith M. Moore, program manager of the National Center for Defense Robotics.

Each BomBot costs about $5,000 to assemble, compared to earlier bomb-disposal devices that cost $100,000 or more, Mr. DeRoos said.

Even similar robots considered previously by the military would have cost around $12,000, he said.

Not only were those devices pricey to build, but some of them were themselves destroyed while detonating IEDs, foundation officials said.

The BomBot’s lower price makes it more expendable and, at 15 pounds, it can be carried more easily than larger, heavier disposal devices that must be hauled on a trailer or in a Humvee, they said.

“Insurgents are taking out [bomb-disposal] devices to slow future responses,” Mr. DeRoos said. “These are rapidly replaceable and not as expensive to the military.”

But the BomBot’s chief benefit, officials said, is the protection it provides for soldiers who can use it to detonate IEDs from up to 1,640 feet away. That is particularly satisfying to James L. Estep, foundation president and chief executive officer, whose 21-year-old son, Adam, is serving in Iraq and recently lost a friend in an IED blast.

“As somebody who thinks about this issue virtually every minute of the day, clearly this is a top priority for me,” Mr. Estep said.

BomBots are not built from scratch but are modifications of commercially available remote-controlled monster trucks that are intended for adults to race and sell for $350 to $500.

Workers in the Fairmont plant first perform computer tests on each vehicle to ensure the gears, engine and batteries work properly.

Workers replace the original wheels with larger, tougher versions and swap out the radio for a tamper- and jam-resistant model that responds only to its operator’s hand-held controller. They upgrade the truck’s transmission and clutch and modify its springs so that it can reach speeds of up to 35 mph and carry a 10-pound load.

Then they add an antenna, a dump-truck bed, a flashlight-sized camera that provides a 360-degree view and conduct more tests. Military officials visit the plant weekly and conduct their own quality tests as well.

The foundation and its partners in the project first developed and built prototypes, which were critiqued by soldiers who tested them in the heat and sand of Iraq, said Bhana Grover of Nomadio Inc.

“Based on those tests, they made the decision to go to this [version],” she said.

“We listened to the users.”

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Robots built in W.Va. going to Iraq to detonate bombs
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Friday, April 21, 2006).

V.W.H. Campbell Jr., Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image.

BomBot during the testing phase (Credit: WVHTC) Click photo for larger image.

• BomBots going to war, (The Charleston Gazette, April 21, 2006)
• WVHTC Foundation Captures Robotics Contract From U.S. Navy, (WVHTC news release, January 17, 2006)
• BomBots will save many lives, (Roland Piquepaille’s Technology Trends)