Engineers Develop Wii Controlled Bomb-Defusing Robot

[malware]

Enterprising engineers at the U.S. Department of Energy have developed a bomb-defusing robot that is maneuvered by the very same Nintendo Wii remote that millions of gamers consider a natural extension of their hands. Packbot, made by iRobot in Burlington, Massachusetts, disposes of bombs, sniffs out explosives and checks for landmines for US soldiers. It is 70 centimetres long, and moves on wheels or tracks. Some even have machine guns attached, although these are yet to be used in battle. Head engineer David Bruemmer said: "Our tests show 90 per cent of the operator's workload goes into driving the robot rather than keeping an eye on the sensor data," He believes that now with the help of Nintendo's Wiimote manoeuvring the Packbot will become a breeze, and thus allow operators to focus more on the collected data and less on how to steer the Packbot. Bruemmer and his crew have also tweaked the Wii's vibration feedback technology to "buzz" the operator when the Packbot detects something of interest in the field. More information on the Packbot can be found at the official site.

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[calvary1980]

when I watch Future Weapons on Discovery Channel they always show these kind of devices with X-Box 360 Controllers, I guess it's so the soldiers are familiar with them.

PS, I don't think this should of been posted on TPU, thanks anyways

- Christine

 

[thoughtdisorder]

I found this to be interesting, thanks!

 

[panchoman]

great job for gamers.. using counsle controllers for the army roflmao.

 

[WarEagleAU]

I love this news. And I feel it should be posted, thanks.