Nobody wants to go anywhere near chemical or biological weapons, so the US Army is testing a robotic Autonomous Equipment Decontamination System that can decontaminate military vehicles exposed to such nastiness without putting soldiers at risk.
Nuclear, chemical, and biological (NBC) weapons are so frightening that chemical and biological weapons haven't been used on a strategic scale since the First World War and no nuclear weapon has been used since 1945. As far as the major powers are concerned, such weapons exist primarily as deterrents to prevent their use by others.
However, such weapons do exist – even when they aren't supposed to. They've been used by rogue powers like Iraq and Syria and there is always the danger that they might be used in near-peer conflicts like the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so NATO, for example, constantly practices anti-NBC drills. These include how to decontaminate personnel, vehicles, and equipment that have been exposed to fallout or chemical and biological weapons.
This is no easy task. Chemical and biological agents are extremely dangerous and even a minute quantity measured in milligrams can be fatal. This means that decontamination procedures must be precise and thorough.
Unfortunately, it's also time consuming and very dangerous for the soldiers involved in the operations. It can take up to 30 soldiers up to 60 minutes to complete the decontamination of a single vehicle and they have to do so in what are called NBC suits, which are special overalls and masks worn over regular fatigues.
These are designed for soldiers to theoretically wear for days if need be, but I've tried on the relatively comfortable British Army version and the idea of wearing one of these for hours on end while carrying out a decontamination exercise and breathing through a gas mask is about as unpleasant as it sounds. Worse, this often has to be done on the front lines while very unsympathetic people are shooting at you.
To remedy this, the US Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center is developing the Autonomous Equipment Decontamination System. This is essentially a mobile robotic cleaner that does the dirty work of decontamination, while the soldiers remain out of harm's way.
The system uses cameras mounted on a mobile platform that travels around the contaminated vehicle and identifies the hot spots. It then washes it down using a special cleaning slurry that it dispenses using a manipulator arm. By using a robot, this not only protects the soldiers, it also conserves the decontaminants, which, like everything else, are bound to be in short supply at the front.
At last May's Maneuver Support and Protection Integration eXperiments (MSPIX) event at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, four soldiers from the Army’s 1st Armored Division were tasked with spending four days testing the system and providing feedback to improve the user interface. This included judging how to best supervise the robot as it maneuvered around the vehicle, how best to improve the controls, and pointing out the importance of being able to manually override the robotic arm to make sure the vehicle is properly decontaminated.
"This system takes us away from the threat completely, and its buttons and controls are easy to use," said Specialist Yaleidi Escalera. "We are the ones who will be using it in the fight, so it feels good to be able to tell the technology developers exactly what we need now."
Source: US Army
