Rise of the robot: Northrop Grumman’s Cutlass combines ease-of-use with a sophisticated array of on-board gadgetry

Report: Stephen Tyler

THE cunning of the insurgent IED teams in Afghanistan means that British bomb disposal experts need to be more versatile than ever.

With explosive devices being planted in a variety of well-concealed locations, the soldiers responsible for finding and disarming them have learnt to act with incredible vigilance.

But their incredible skill-set could be boosted in the future by the introduction of a space-age robot capable of tackling even the most challenging devices the Taliban can concoct.

Cutlass, designed by Northrop Grumman, is a six-wheeled robot equipped with a host of kit for probing and making safe IEDs, including a state-of-the-art gripper arm which has nine degrees of freedom of movement.

Ken Beedle, the company’s director of international communications, told Soldier that the arm’s design makes it easy to manoeuvre in confined spaces.

He added: “The operator can point the camera at a target, press a button and the arm will find the best way of reaching it and remember how it got there so it can get out again.”

Created for the MoD to serve in the ranks as the next generation of unmanned bomb disposal robots, Cutlass is as able on the move as it is in delicate, high-pressure situations.

Instead of the tracked system installed on existing robots such as Wheelbarrow, the new device features six independent wheels, allowing it to creep at low speed or accelerate to enable rapid travel.

The wheels are also capable of tackling hard and soft terrain in all types of weather, making it an ideal solution for the varied landscapes and climates found in Afghanistan.

Northrop Grumman managing director Kevin Rooney stressed that his company worked closely with the Army’s explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) experts during the initial design phase of Cutlass.

The firm also drew on its experiences in building and updating Wheelbarrow, the robot currently in service with bomb disposal teams in Britain and elsewhere around the world.

Mr Rooney added: “It’s our job to put a device in the field ready to use and we work very closely with the user groups to make that happen. We find that they don’t hold back, but why should they when it’s their lives on the line?

“We are very pleased with Cutlass. Its ability to move across multiple terrains is important because the time to the target is always an issue.”

Since winning an MoD contract to deliver a new fleet of EOD vehicles in 2006, Northrop Grumman has progressed to the stage where it will begin production of Cutlass later this year.

The finished product’s modular design means that users will be able to add or take off new kit depending on the demands of operations.

And although the software used to allow operators to control the device is hi-tech, Mr Rooney insisted that new drivers would be able to pick up the basics in a matter of hours.

“I would expect someone to achieve functionality within half a day,” he said. “The important thing from a user’s point of view is that it’s easy to use and we have ensured that this is, despite it actually being very complex.

“The guys who will be using this are doing a terrific but difficult job and we don’t want them to have to concentrate on how the equipment works.

“This really is the next generation – nobody else is building anything like this.”