Northrop Grumman’s subsidiary Remotec has unveiled a next-generation unmanned ground vehicle that has been specifically designed to defeat a wide range of threats, including vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.
Remotec builds mobile robot systems for first responders, military branches and law enforcement agencies.
“Andros FX™ was designed using a proven concurrent engineering process to develop a superior product at an affordable price. Werner said increased cross-functional involvement early in the design phase results in a much lower lifecycle cost as well as a product that can be quickly adapted for a variety of missions, easily upgraded and expanded, and more efficiently maintained,” reads the company’s media release.
Northrop Grumman said that the robot has a system that builds upon Remotec’s F6 family of robots.
“Bomb squads have told us what they need most are more capabilities to counter vehicle-borne IEDs,” said Walt Werner, director, Northrop Grumman Remotec.
“Andros FX™ was designed from the ground up based on that feedback to give the bomb tech community the most advanced technology while at the same time making the system easier to use and maintain to keep danger at a distance.”
The Andros FX™ has four track pods, a new arm design with increased lift capacity and greater dexterity, updated system electronics, mobility improvements, a new touchscreen operator control unit with 3D system graphics, a boosted user interface and advanced manipulator controls.
Remotec will exhibit the robot at the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators’ five-day annual conference in Pennsylvania, which kicked off yesterday.
The company will start to accept orders for the system by April 2016.
