QUANTICO, Va.–The subsidiary in the United States of Israel’s Elbit Systems [ESLT] said recently that its new Beagle tactical reconnaissance robot would be in full production early next year and selling at prices about one-sixth the cost of some high-end robots on the market today.
“This will be selling at a very low price, about $25,000,” Francis Govers, chief engineer at Elbit Systems of America Land Solutions, told sister publication Defense Daily at the Modern Day Marine Expo here. “Compare that to other robots that cost $150,000 to $180,000 and for what you pay [for Beagle] you still get a lot.”
Beagle is a compact, lightweight robot designed for low intensity tasks in support of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), squad reconnaissance, remote sensing and video surveillance.
It has obstacle sensing capability, inertial and GPS navigation systems, and a deck mounted payload adapter for a variety of sensors and systems.
Govers said the company is initially targeting the training market. “There are about 5,000 robots out there in the field, so you figure you could use about a quarter that many for training,” he said. “Guys need to get some training on how to operate these things, so why pay six times more than you need to [to learn] basic operations.”
Once Beagle goes into production, Elbit aims to get the system on the GSA schedule and begin selling Beagles individually, the way a lot of purchases are done with robot systems, Govers said.
Then, the company will start pitching it as a scout platform for light armored vehicles, amphibious assault vehicles, and Army and Marine Corps squads and patrols, Govers said. “This is an ideal compact reconnaissance platform, its design is simple and it is easy to operate and maintain,” he said. It would also help with “collateral EOD” duties or potential improvised explosive device (IED) situations troops could encounter, by allowing them to better identify and avoid IED threats.
Beagle will also be touted as a vehicle inspection assistant. “If there is a part of a vehicle that the robot cannot get under, then it can take the video camera in there with its arm,” Govers said.
Beagle is 27 inches long, 20 inches wide and 12 inches high with its three-foot robotic arm. It weighs 38 pounds and can carry 20 pounds of payload.
Beagle has a six-wheel track system for mobility that enables it to climb eight-inch stairs up to 50-degree slope, and it can operate in sand, mud and snow in all weather and up to six inches of water.
Battery endurance is between two and four hours, during which time Beagle could travel up to 12 miles. There are options for hot-swappable MilSpec BB-2590 batteries and a solar panel charger.
For communication, Beagle has a digital 2.4Ghz radio receiver with a range of one kilometer line-of-sight (LOS) or about half that non-LOS. It also has an omni-directional, high-sensitivity microphone and sealed 5 Watt loudspeakers.
While Beagle was designed from the ground up as a lightweight, inexpensive, modular robot, it features several new systems that are already being rolled back into the company’s family of robotic vehicles, including the VIPeR currently in use by the Israel Defense Forces.
New sensor features include infrared proximity detectors and passive infrared for detection of humans. Beagle also has remotely controlled IR lights and a new robotic arm.