London, September 19 (ANI): The U.S. army’s fleet of robots will soon be enhanced with the addition of forthcoming reconnaissance craft called the ‘hopping rotochute’, which will be capable of travelling deep into obstacle-ridden spaces like caves and rubble-laden buildings to video what it finds.
The self-righting probe is being developed for the Army Research Lab in Aberdeen, Maryland, by Eric Beyer and Mark Costello, a pair of robotics engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
The project attains significance because present-day military robots, which run on small tank-style tracks, cannot cope with irregular surfaces and obstacles such as rubble or boulders.
“They usually have trouble and get stuck with even low obstacles and walls a couple of feet high,” says Costello.
Although small helicopters are one alternative, continuous flying drains the batteries fast.
Thus, Costello stresses the need for a rotor-powered, bottom-heavy, self-righting vehicle that spends most of its time on the ground, conserving battery power.
AS to whether repeated hopping might harm the craft, a spokesman for the Impact Centre at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire, UK, said: “From a crashworthiness point of view this concept looks perfectly feasible. There should be no problem with the vehicle surviving hundreds of impacts, which is roughly equivalent to dropping a mobile phone from waist height.” (ANI)
Smear Emails: Tories Want Brown To Say Sorry
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Have your say: Gordon Brown
Damian McBride quit after admitting sending “juvenile and inappropriate” emails from his Downing Street account to former spin doctor Derek Draper.
In the messages, the two men discussed setting up an “attack blog” called Red Rag that would have spread unfounded gossip about Conservative opponents.
Details of the emails, including false allegations about David Cameron and George Osborne, have been published in The Sunday Times and News Of The World.
Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling branded the stories “blatant lies” and demanded to know who else had been aware the talks were taking place.
“The detail of these emails that is now emerging is shocking and completely unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Grayling added: “These are blatant lies cooked up in Downing Street by one of the Prime Minister’s key advisers.
“Mr Brown hasn’t even had the decency to apologise. His statement on Saturday afternoon was unacceptable.
“This is an exceptionally serious matter and he needs to explain immediately what happened and how such defamatory comments came to be issued from Downing Street.”
The former Labour Home Secretary Charles Clarke was one of the first to demand Mr McBride’s resignation, saying his actions “bring shame to the Labour Party”.
Mr Clarke told Sky’s Colin Brazier: “This kind of conduct of politics is simply not acceptable.
“It’s not the right way to conduct politics in general, it’s not the right way for Labour to win elections and it’s not the right way in which our public debate is advanced.
“I think there had been a pattern of behaviour with Damian over a long period.
“And I’m glad the Prime Minister’s been decisive enough to get rid of him yesterday when this evidence came out into the open.”
But he insisted the Conservatives also needed to drive the “black arts” out of politics.
Mid Bedfordshire MP Nadine Dorries confirmed she was among four Tories featured in the emails, and called for the Prime Minister to say sorry.
The discussions between Mr McBride and Mr Draper took place in January and were leaked to right-wing blogger Paul Staines.
Mr McBride said he was “shocked and appalled” at the way the emails had been used and regretted any embarrassment caused to the Government.