Since the two-hour television movie Knight Rider aired two weeks ago, people have gone self-driving car crazy!

Stars and Stripes, an independent online news source for U.S. military news, reports that the American government has a working prototype of an all-terrain vehicle that would require no supervision or human assistance whatsoever in order to operate in the field.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has finally completed work on this robotics project after nearly four years.

Enter The Crusher, a seven-ton unmanned vehicle designed to demonstrate the potential of driverless battle trucks to military planners.

Although no plans to put Crusher into action have been set, the response to the project seems to be positive. The benefits of this type of equipment would be innumerable. Its ability to barrel through or over hard-terrain like boulders make it a valuable asset regarding the military’s ability to thoroughly analyze an area under observation since the Crusher can enter into places that would leave any human seriously damaged, perhaps with spinal injuries.

Rather than entering into a situation blind or being hindered completely by natural obstructions, military personnel can “ride along” with the Crusher from a remote base. They can also collect important data from the many operating systems DARPA has equipped the Crusher with, including infrared readouts, laser sensors and mapping cameras.

But don’t get too excited about the potential for this kind of project to spill over into the private sector. The Crusher was not made to handle changing traffic patterns, rendering it useless in an urban environment. Plus, Crusher can only reach a top speed of 26 miles per hour.

DARPA and the Pentagon are enthusiastic about the future of the Crusher and similar robotics projects, so look for more developments in this field to come along in the near future.

To read more about what Crusher can do, read the full article here.

Image: Stars and Stripes

Tags: robotics, DOD, DARPA, Crusher, driverless vehicles,  military equipment, military projects

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