The Multi-function Agile Remote-Controlled Robot (MARCbot) is a

military robot Military robots are autonomous robots or remote-controlled mobile robots designed for military applications, from transport to search & rescue and attack. Some such systems are currently in use, and many are under development. History Broa ...

created by Exponent Inc. for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Rapid Equipping Force The Rapid Equipping Force (REF) was a United States Army organization headquartered in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The organization was charged with quickly providing Army units deployed globally with innovative government off-the-shelf and commerci ...

Design

The MARCbot was designed as a low cost robotic platform used in Iraq for the inspection of suspicious objects. Until its creation when US Army patrols encountered a potential

improvised explosive device An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...

, they had to either wait for a specialist

explosive ordnance disposal Bomb disposal is an explosives engineering profession using the process by which hazardous explosive devices are rendered safe. ''Bomb disposal'' is an all-encompassing term to describe the separate, but interrelated functions in the milit ...

team with its specialist / expensive robots, or investigate the suspicious package themselves. Exponent worked with the

to create a low cost robot for patrol units. Over 1000 MARCbots were eventually created for the US Army for the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

and the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

. The MARCbot reputedly costs $19,000 - however this is less than other contemporary military robots. The MARCbot is one of smallest and most commonly used robots in Iraq and looks like a small toy truck with an elevated mast on which a camera is mounted. This camera is used to look, for example, behind doors or through windows without placing human soldiers in danger. It is capable of running for 6 hours on a set of fully charged batteries and was developed with the input of soldiers in Iraq to meet their needs.

Use as an offensive weapon

The MARCbot was the first ground robot to draw blood in Iraq. One unit jury-rigged a

Claymore A claymore (; from gd, claidheamh- mòr, "great sword") is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sl ...

antipersonnel mine on their units. If they suspected an ambush they would send the robot ahead. If an insurgent was seen the Claymore would be detonated.

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Military robots Unmanned ground vehicles Unmanned ground combat vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 2000s

Design

Use as an offensive weapon

See also

References