KEY POINTS:
The US Army has a bit of a high-tech reputation - and it's well founded.
Now the juggernaut wants tiny robotic network routers to take drag its web wherever it goes - and it's asking civilian brains to see the concept into reality.
The concept LANdroid is a tiny, tank-like robot router that's designed to be used in urban warzones that are difficult to maintain network communication in.
Buildings and other obstacles can leave gaps in local area networks (LANs), but a squad of intelligent mobile bots, moving as one, should be able to solve wireless woes.
The disposable machines are to be dropped, en masse, and will move around to find the best place to act as a network node.
If one gets blown up, the rest should regroup to maintain the LAN.
Dreamed up by the Defence Advanced Project Research Agency (DARPA), the real-life bots will need to weigh less than a kilogram and be less than a litre in volume.
Just to uphold the American defence reputation for being demanding, DARPA wants the LANdroids to cost less than $US100 at production runs of less 1000.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
