ReconRobotics will begin making deliveries on the $1,350,000 contract this month.
Ernest Langdon, director of military sales for ReconRobotics, Inc, said: “The lightweight, throwable Recon Scout IR will allow our troops to assess hostile situations from a safe distance and plan operations with greater confidence and safety.
“Every infantry unit or special operations team should have access to this life saving capability when they go into harm’s way.”
The Recon Scout IR is a man-portable, remote-controlled reconnaissance robot designed to provide military personnel with immediate video surveillance of hostile environments.
Ten second deployment
The Recon Scout IR is less than 19cm long and 7.6cm wide, and weighs just over half a kilogram, making it easy to carry in a pocket or on a vest. Personnel can deploy the robot in under ten seconds by throwing or driving it into the target environment, and its small size and extremely quiet operation make it difficult to detect as it moves.
The robot systems’ video and command signals have a line-of-sight range of 300 feet (91m) outdoors and 100 feet (30m) indoors, depending on number and composition of intervening walls. The robot uses a no-light camera system with IR emitters, which gives the warfighter a clear, crisp image of the environment even in total darkness.
The Recon Scout IR is also designed to survive the punishing environment of the military battlefield. It can withstand repeated forceful impacts such as those delivered by throwing the robot 30m or dropping it from a height of 9m onto a concrete surface.
The Recon Scout IR has a zero turning radius and can move at speeds of one foot per second. Directing the movement of the robot requires just one hand, leaving the soldier’s other hand available for a firearm or radio.
