Battery to Extend Work-Life Of Bomb-Disposal Robots

8 2,009

By Jason Jacks

If dealing with an unexploded bomb wasn’t hairy enough, try it with a battery that may conk out in the middle of the job. The Defense Department believes it may have help for the battery problem.

A team of Penn State University researchers developed a battery for the military’s bomb-disposal Talon robots that has a 23-percent longer life span than current power packs.

The new Talon battery module incorporates a bank of four to six standard BB-2590 batteries that can be hot-swapped without rebooting the robot. The module also features an improved battery health monitoring system.

The Marine Corps plans to outfit all of its Talon robots with the new battery module, and the Army and the Pentagon’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization have ordered more than 1,300 to replace all battery units currently in the field.

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Reader Comments

Re: Battery to Extend Work-Life Of Bomb-Disposal Robots

The Army battery system was developed at Picatinny, in cooperation with the effort at Penn State. I'm guessing the article was based on a Penn State press release, which emphasized only their role.

The JIEDDO funding was a result of the combined efforts of both Picatinny and Penn State.

By the way, the really big win for the military isn't the 23% longer mission life; it's that the BB-2590 batteries are common stock items, and a six pack of BB-2590's costs about one fifth of what a custom Talon Lithium battery pack costs.

Kent Massey on 09/08/2009 at 10:16

Re: Battery to Extend Work-Life Of Bomb-Disposal Robots

This is funny. The Army already developed this same one, and it is in theater now for feedback. the same one. too much money being spent on this project by different services, no wonder why we keep going more into debt.

Alex on 08/05/2009 at 09:26

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