INDIAN HEAD, Md., 13 April 2011.Unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) designers at iRobot Corp. in Bedford, Mass., are providing the U.S. Navy with small bomb-disposal robots under terms of a $230.1 million contract announced Tuesday from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, in Indian Head, Md.
The company will provide its PackBot man-transportable robotic system (MTRS) for Navy and U.S. Marine Corps explosive ordnance disposal technicians to search for, neutralize, destroy, or otherwise dispose of explosives -- especially the improvised explosive device (IED) roadside bombs that plague U.S. and allied military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Robotic technicians from iRobot customize PackBot MTRS UGVs for the Navy with tools and sensors that help explosives-disposal experts detect, identify and disable explosives from safe distances.
The Navy has relied on iRobot to deliver hundreds of bomb-disposal robots in recent years. On this latest contract iRobot will do the work in Bedford, Mass., and should be finished by April 2015.
For more information contact iRobot online at www.irobot.com/gi, or the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, at www.navsea.navy.mil/nswc/indianhead.
