The Japanese Government has agreed to use QinetiQ North America’s unmanned vehicle vision equipment for the disaster recovery work taking place in tsunami and earthquake hit Japan.
A training would also be given for using the equipment. This technology would help the response teams in Japan to achieve complex and critical recovery tasks from a safe distance from the dangerous and hazardous conditions. It incorporates the Robotic Appliqué Kits, which help to alter the Bobcat loaders into unmanned vehicles within 15 minutes. These kits also facilitate the control of all the 70 Bobcat vehicle attachments such as buckets, shovels, tree cutters, grapples, and other tools for smashing through doors and walls by remote control. Seven cameras, thermal imagers, night vision, two-way radio systems, microphones and radiation sensors are also included in the unmanned vehicle. They could be operated from a distance of a mile to remove the debris and rubble, carry smaller equipment and excavate the buried items safely.
The company is also offering its Dragon Runner and TALON robots to Japan. In the past, the TALON robots have endured rigorous deployment along with decontamination at Ground Zero level, daily two times. These robots come equipped with CBRNE detection kits (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive), which could recognize and identify over 7500 environmental hazards such as volatile gases, toxic industrial chemicals, air and temperature quality indicators and explosive risks. Night vision, sensing and sound capabilities from a distance of 1000 meters are being provided by the TALON robots.
The compact and lightweight Dragon Runner robots from QinetiQ have been created for usage in small and confined spaces, mainly to investigate trenches, rubble piles, tunnels and culverts. Sound sensors and thermal cameras are installed on the robots to store data and transmit from a distance of 800 meters. They act as the ears and eyes in spaces, which are too dangerous and small for human beings to access.
Source: http:// www.qinetiq-na.com/