Now here is a robot that while it might not be able to save lives of those who are drowning, it is still capable of making sure that a country’s troops do not suffer from any more unnecessary loss of life. iRobot, the company who has churned out the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners, also does churn out other kinds of robots that will operate in hostile situations, including the front lines of combat and even in hostage situations. Known as the Packbot, this military-grade robot has seen service in detecting and disarming roadside bombs, performing tests on the structural integrity of the fallen World Trade Center after September 11, 2001, as well as performing reconnaissance in radiation-spoiled areas such as those around Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors.
In fact, the iRobot’s Packbot military effectiveness have been proven more than useful to American troops, the US military has decided to fork out $7.7 million worth of orders in order to upgrade nearly 250 high-tech robots that will include new features such as thermal cameras, a self-righting mechanism which is capable of assisting it to help a flipped-over robot correct itself, while performing a backtrack action in order to restore a broken communications link. This clearly makes life easier for the infantry on the ground, hence helping him or her have a clearer mind when attending to a certain task.
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