An Autonomous 'Bot that Burrows Underground to Deliver Deadly Payloads

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An Autonomous 'Bot that Burrows Underground to Deliver Deadly Payloads

Something big is happening underground

By Clay Dillow


Posted 03.15.2010 at 2:01 pm


10 Comments

There's been a lot of talk lately about what's happening underground, from DARPA's Transparent Earth program to subterranean navigation systems (for real). Not to be out-DARPA'd by DARPA, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency is seeking a "one-time use, air-delivered, highly mobile vehicle" that can tunnel into the earth and deliver a munitions payload underground.

The idea is for the Robotic Underground Munition to make a soft landing after being dropped from an aircraft, at which point it would traverse surface terrain to a predetermined point and start tunneling, autonomously navigating underground until it locates its target. The RUM could then deliver a payload, which could range from a strongly worded letter to a warhead.

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read more about > bunker busters, DTRA, military, robots, Thunderbirds, underground, WMD