Robots clear site for future aerial gunnery range

From the safety of a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide truck-drawn mobile command center parked on a gravel and dirt road, four 20-something technicians sip soft drinks while fixed on their individual computer screens.

Using video game controllers connected to laptop computers, the technicians maneuver heavy forestry equipment up to a mile away. Viewing the terrain, via cameras mounted on the equipment, they safely maneuver around obstacles, as the equipment they control cuts and clears vegetation growing in areas littered with potentially dangerous unexploded ordnance, or UXO.

The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center here is using this innovative robotic range clearance process on Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before construction can begin on the installation's new $40 million live-fire aerial range that will soon provide Army rotary wing aircraft aerial bombing and target practice.

 http://www.army.mil/article/155172/Robots_clear_site_for_future_aerial_gunnery_range/