MTSU will research how military robots can work with unmanned aircraft through a “historic partnership” with the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps, University President Sidney McPhee announced on Monday.
McPhee signed a Joint Robotic System contract with U.S. Army Lt. Col. Nick Kioutas at the university’s Tom Jackson Building. The new partnership comes one year after MTSU and the Army entered into an agreement to support the university’s educational and research efforts into the Army’s remote-controlled Raven aircraft, according to an MTSU news release.
“We are very interested in continuing to build on this partnership with the Army,” McPhee told an audience of university staff and students and media before signing the contract. Kioutas told the audience that more research is needed to understand how the technology works for unmanned aircraft and ground robots that can detect IEDs (improvised explosive devices). “These robots save lives,” said Kioutas, who is based in Huntsville, Alabama.
The university demonstrated how the robots move and extend a camera to get glimpses from various angles with senior aerospace major Steve Lawn operating the control station, a computer that sits in a metal briefcase.
“It took a couple of days to get a feel for it and a couple of weeks to get comfortable,” said Lawn, the chief operator for MTSU”s Unmanned Aircraft Systems programme.
Sources: The Tennessean /MTSU YouTube