Make Way for "Robo Crusher!"

By Pamela Mortimer

First it was the Humvee. Now, the U.S. government has an even better toy in the "Robo Crusher". The fully automated, battle-ready truck has been designed to brave the most rugged terrain with no help from us pesky human beings. One report compared it to a modern day KITT from Knight Rider, but with a lot more power (and fewer wisecracks).

The Crusher is the culmination of nearly four years of research and state of the art design by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The goal was to create an unmanned, completely automated and unsupervised machine that can handle almost any job on the battlefield.

Weighing in at seven-ton, Robo Crusher is programmed to travel from point A to point B with nothing but a few GPS coordinates. The vehicle has the ability to map its own route while it’s in motion, and is able to choose the path of least resistance to complete the assigned mission. When it comes in contact with an object more than two meters high, such a boulders or riverbed, Robo Crusher will create an easier route in order to avoid the obstacles. For obstacles less than two meters high, it drives over or through them, making good use of its six wheel non-skid steering system and 30-inch ground clearance.

Unlike the Humvee, Crusher has no steering wheel or seats for passengers. And, unless the remote control override is turned on the vehicle will contain no human driver. Just to make sure that Crusher is on track, technicians are able to see what it sees, albeit in a command center miles away from the scene.

"This vehicle can go into places where, if you were following in a Humvee, you’d come out with spinal injuries," said Stephen Welby, director of DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. "Usually vehicles are set up to protect humans. Here, we didn’t have to worry about that."

Military officials are still testing the Crusher and the Army has no immediate plans to put the vehicle into use. Unfortunately, Crusher does have some limitations. Able to hit a top speed of 26 mph, researchers said they "didn’t design it for rush hour". Also, it has no concept of how to interact with any type of traffic signal. Its nine foot wide frame wouldn’t be much fun to parallel park, either.

"This could be used as a scout, or a quick-response support vehicle," Welby said. "With existing cameras we’ve put on there this vehicle is able to see rabbits at long-range, and enemy troops from 4 kilometers away. Imagine sending this to an intersection and letting it sit there to monitor what’s going on for days or weeks."