Exponent - Technology Development

> Home: Practices: Technology Development: M7- Wearable Robot Controller and Situational Awareness System

On-The-Ground Development
In July 2002, Exponent engineers assisted US Army units in Afghanistan in the first-ever battlefield deployment of robots in combat. Building on our experience as systems integrator for the Land Warrior program, Exponent designed, built, and delivered the M7 wearable computer/radio systems in less than 40 days. In addition, Exponent engineers established a field lab in Afghanistan, immediately incorporating soldier feedback and lessons learned from each combat mission.

M7 Systems in Combat
The M7 wearable computer/radio systems provide mapping, GPS, communications, situational awareness, and other information lethality functions to the soldier in a lightweight, modular package. The M7 also was integrated with robots developed by Exponent and by iRobot. The soldiers used the M7s to control these cave-exploring robots, reducing the risk to the soldiers by permitting them to check buildings and caves before entry. During combat, the robots cleared 26 caves, 4 bunkers, an ammunition cache, and a building complex in a matter of days and without a single system failure.

M7
The M7 includes the following components:

500 MHz Pentium III, 256 MB RAM Kaiser ElectroOptics Helmet-Mounted Display, 800x600 VGA, 24-bit color Win2000 on 1 GB compact flash main storage, 1 GB IBM Microdrive secondary storage	Custom thermal dissipation enclosure COTS GPS (also accepts PLGR or other GPS device that outputs NMEA data) USB personal device network, including COTS USB joystick or other pointing device
The standard M7 system weighs less than 10 pounds and runs on a standard SINCGARS battery for 13.5 hours.

Robots
The M7 is currently integrated with two robots: the heavy-duty Packbot from iRobot Corporation and the expendable Markbot from Exponent. Additional robots can easily be integrated into the M7’s modular system architecture.