Ground Companies Debut New Products at Eurosatory 2014

DOK-ING’s new manipulator arm, shown on its MV-4 UGV. AUVSI photo.

 

By Danielle Lucey



Companies from the unmanned ground vehicle sector have been upgrading and adding to their line up of systems, and many chose to unveil their new wares at Eurosatory, taking place this week in Paris. 



DOK-ING, from Zagreb, Croatia, announced at the show that it has outfitted the company’s MV-4 unmanned ground vehicle with a new manipulator arm that will allow it to do heavy lifting downrange to dispose of unexploded ordinances and improvised explosive devices. Mislav Manda, an account manager with the company, says they began development on the arm because of a demand by the Austrian government to support their combat operations. The arm can also clear heavy objects, such as telephone poles or tree trunks. 



The system can be controlled at 1.5 kilometers’ distance from a dangerous area to perform reconnaissance before troops enter. While the vehicle has been tested by the company to withstand up to eight kilos of explosives, Manda says military forces have reported up to 50-kilogram blasts where the vehicle needed only a few repairs. 



Israeli company G-NIUS launched a new system, the Core Unit, which converts any ground vehicle into a robotic platform. The company’s Yoav Hirsh says the flexibility will allow the software to aid vehicles to perform any function autonomously. 



“The technologies we have today are mature enough to do a wide option of missions,” he says. The model the company had on display at the show is particularly suited for homeland security and special operations, he said, because its hybrid electric power keeps noise to a minimum and has a weapons station. 



Hirsh says the mark one, two and three versions of the systems have 60,000 operational hours of experience, performing sentry work at the Israeli border for the past seven years, and this fifth version builds on feedback they’ve received from their customers. 



Switzerland’s MineWolf Systems showed their Micro MineWolf UGV’s new robotic arm attachment, which can remove heavy vegetation or clear an area of improvised explosive devices. Tanja Reichmuth, global marketing and communications manager for the company, says its nine-person engineering department worked on the arm to capture a new market space. 



“We want to fill the gap between the robots and the big combine clearing machines,” she says.



She says the new product’s mission capabilities are flexible, and its vegetation clearance capability allows it to work easily in jungle environments. 



The company also launched a new runway clearance attachment at the show for the Mini MineWolf. The cluster bomb unit collector and dispenser can be used to clean airfields and other paved surfaces of munitions. 



U.S. company iRobot has rereleased its Cobra large unmanned ground vehicle, which specializes in explosive ordnance disposal, at Eurosatory. The company’s Tim Trainer says the robot is part of its family of systems sized for all concepts, from its smallest FirstLook robot to its larger systems.



“The size — we’re from five pounds all the way up to 500 pounds,” he says. The benefit of this large size is the robot’s ability to lift large explosive devices while downrange, he says. The show is also the first time the company has displayed the robot with a multiple disrupter mount.



In addition to large systems, the company’s smaller systems are playing a large role this week at the FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s defense forces are using the 30 PackBots they have purchased to perform security in the country, which prior to the international soccer match had assisted in last year’s Confederation Cup and the papal visit. The systems will also be used again for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.