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The Government Is Developing a Naval Mine-lookalike Surveillance Drone

Some develop drones for commercial use, so they could deliver small packages, tape movies or for news purposes. Still, let us not forget that the military is the one to have created the unmanned vehicles in the first place. They are the ones that tested the first drones, back when we would still discover Facebook and when they were still considered secret projects.
GuardBot 1 photo
Photo: GuardBot
In case you thought the government simply stopped developing them once they became accessible for civil use, you should reconsider it. Not only did they go forward, but they even came up with other approaches. GuardBot is one of those ideas, only that it’s not the government spending tax payers money for it, no, everything remains on a private level.

How? Well, it’s called cooperative research development agreement or CRADA. The naval mine-lookalike device is in fact a lot smaller and it’s currently being under development. GuardBot is the brainchild of a research team from Stamford, Connecticut, and it’s an amphibious drone that’s currently tested with the marines.

Built as a robot ball capable of swimming over water at about 4 mph (6km/h), it then rolls along the beach and hits quite impressive speeds - up to 20 mph (32km/h). The robot is capable of supporting a wide range of security, broadcasting and military missions. Equipped with two cameras that can work independently, the robot can monitor conditions or check for intruders.

Even though it appears to be rather non-combatant, its creator claims it can be outfitted to carry sensors and other payloads as well. As to how it works, according to Defense One, the GuardBot uses a nine-axis stabilization, “pendulum motion” propulsion system, which moves the bot forward by shifting the center of gravity back and forth and a variety of steering algorithms.

Researchers have been working for seven years to develop the perfect robot and are now looking forward in down-scaling the models as small as 6 feet (182 cm) in diameter. But like we said the company has an agreement with the Navy, in the way that they don’t receive money from the government, yet use government facilities, research and resources. Of course, the government does retain a use license.

In other words, soon enough we might find marines using these puppies all around the world.

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