AUSA 2012: US Army fields Minotaur robotic mine clearance system

source dvidshub.net

24 February 2012 - by Scott Gourley – Shepardmedia.com

Fort Lauderdale, USA - The US Army Rapid Equipping Force (REF) used AUSA Winter 2012 to spotlight its exploration of several unmanned vehicle designs.

One of the systems highlighted was the Minotaur, a ‘robotic Bobcat’ that first entered theatre in prototype form in November of last year.

‘It’s a project we started last year to find something that could help dismounted guys who need to walk a path about 3 – 5 feet side,’ said Lt Col Don Carter, a product director at the REF. ‘There is nothing that currently works “in the middle.” You have the RG-31 and Buffaloes for route clearance. And for clearing footpaths you have handheld metal detectors. But what about something that gives me 3 – 5 feet clearance as I’m trying to move more quickly? There was nothing out there to meet that medium gap.’

‘So we looked at what we could use for a vehicle platform that could get on the ground; provide [visual] security; and also use as IED defeat? And we came up with Minotaur, which uses an off the shelf Bobcat vehicle; Qinetiq remote control system with camera on top; a mine roller developed by AMRDEC [Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center] down in Huntsville; and a rake from PM AMS [Product Manager, Assured Mobility Systems]. We combined all of that through the PIF [prototype integration facility] and came up with this system,’ he said.

Carter pointed to the development of several new systems that could be used in conjunction with the Minotaur design, including technologies like ground penetrating radar or electricity charge generator to detonate IEDs.

‘What you want to do is give the commander a toolbox with many pieces of equipment he can use on the battlefield,’ he said. ‘That’s something that these units didn’t have before. They had to wait for route clearance units. And that slowed their movement. Now, when you give the units something like this, they have the ability to clear their own route much more quickly.’

The first unit arrived in theatre in November of last year with three Minotaur systems in theater as of this writing.

‘We have 12 more coming in and we just received a request to support another 52,’ Carter said. ‘The system has already been operated by units and they see utility in it.’