TrendCCAT grants award to developer of robotics
Twenty years ago states sent representatives abroad to lure foreign automakers to build their plants in, say, Illinois or Tennessee; these days states send representatives abroad to lure foreign homeland security companies
The San Diego, California-based Center for Commercialization of Advanced Technology (CCAT) has granted a $50,000 award to the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego) Technology Transfer Program. The money will be used to improve SSC San Diego’s line of robotic systems, in the process creating more intelligent robots which can function without need for a joystick or other hands-on human intervention. The improved systems may be used to detect and neutralize improvised explosive devices (IEDs), provide real-time visual and recorded surveillance, create maps of areas which are hazardous or inaccessible to soldiers (such as caves or bunkers), and sense human presence.
Robots save lives. There are some 2,000 robots in use in Afghanistan and Iraq, and analysts say this number will likely grow to more than 4,000 by the end of 2006. The current generation of robots are remote controlled, which means extensive and at times close human involvement. The company will use the CCAT funding to improve functionalities such as voice-recognition for control, enhanced mobility, and increased autonomy. Tom Sheffer, program director for CCAT at San Diego State University (SDSU) Research Foundation, says: “SSC San Diego’s robotics program has unlimited potential, not only in reducing casualties, but also in its ability to provide valuable information to the military and other first responders.”
CCAT is sponsored by the Department of Defense (DoD). It offers funding and business development to small-business entrepreneurs, government labs, and academic researchers to accelerate commercialization of technology needed by DoD and the DHS.
-read more about SSC San Diego at organization Web site; and more about CCAT at CCAT Web site
