Carnegie Mellon University will develop a new generation of armored reconnaissance robots for the U.S. Marine Corps, beating out defense giant Lockheed Martin for a $26 million government contract.

Cpl. Luis R. Agostini, USMC
An early version of such a vehicle is shown during a June 2003 demonstration at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii.
Click photo for larger image. Previous coverageRead the Post-Gazette's articles on last year's DARPA Grand Challenge, which featured Sandstorm, a modified Humvee operated by a self-driving robot.

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Working with United Defense Industries of Arlington, Va., Carnegie Mellon is to deliver six Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicles, known as TUGVs, by July 2007, the university and the Department of Defense announced yesterday.

Carnegie Mellon researchers will receive an initial payment of $12.4 million on the $26.4 million contract.

A successful prototype of the robot was created by scientists with Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, and as many as 200 robots may eventually be manufactured at United Defense's Fayette County facility in Uniontown.

The U.S. military has increasingly been turning to unmanned vehicles as a way of surveying hostile terrain while keeping soldiers away from enemy fire. Unmanned Predator drones armed with Hellfire missiles have been used extensively in Afghanistan and Iraq to swoop over battlefields, transmitting real-time images to controllers on the ground.

Military officials hope the Gladiator will do the same thing, moving into potentially hostile areas ahead of U.S. troops.

"The idea is to get it out front and take the Marines out of harm's way," said Bill Thomasmeyer, executive vice president of the newly formed Technology Collaborative, which helped put Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Consortium together with United Defense. "This has the potential to save thousands of lives."

The Gladiator will resemble a bulky, armored all-terrain vehicle, weighing about a ton, with six wheels. A Marine will control it with a remote.

According to Dimi Apostolopoulos, Carnegie Mellon's lead scientist on the project, the Gladiator will use sensors to warn soldiers about a variety of dangers: enemy positions, barbed wire, mines, and even chemical, biological or nuclear threats.

The Gladiator will also be able to detect and avoid obstacles such as craters.

Scientists with Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Consortium started working on the Gladiator project in 2002, under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research. In February 2004, the team completed a prototype, which was tested twice by the military at the Marine Corps' headquarters in Quantico, Va., Apostolopoulos said.

First, the Gladiator's mobility was tested. Military officials were looking for a unit that can function on all types of terrain, in temperatures ranging from 25 degrees below zero to 125 degrees, while withstanding fire from automatic weapons like the AK-47.

Cpl. Luis R. Agostini, USMC
Marines from a military police company demonstrated a Gladiator Tactical Unmanned Ground Vehicle armed with a medium machine gun and rockets in June 2003 at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii.
Click photo for larger image.

Second, the military tested the robot's sensory capabilities.

Apostolopoulos was thrilled when he found out that the military had awarded the contract to Carnegie Mellon.

"It's recognition by the Marine Corps that we have the solutions to address their needs in a practical way," he said. "That's huge for us."

Eventually, the Marines hope to arm the Gladiator with machine guns and other weapons.

Carnegie Mellon needed to work with an experienced partner in the defense industry to advance to this new phase of the Gladiator project, Thomasmeyer said.

Herb Muktarian, a spokesperson for United Defense, described his company's partnership with the university as a natural fit.

"Carnegie Mellon has a long history with robotics, and our company has a long history in the integration and production of military vehicles," he said.

United Defense and Carnegie Mellon will open a joint office at the university's robotics facility in Lawrenceville. The development team also includes General Dynamics Armaments and Technical Products, Tadrian Electronic Systems, and Timoney Technologies Ltd.

The Technology Collaborative was formed last month in a merger of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Robotics Foundry.

First Published: February 11, 2005, 5:00 a.m.