While the image of a small robotic ‘pirate’ scaling the side of a ship may seem absurd, the people at ReconRobotics thought it might be the perfect way to thwart real pirates. Their beer can-sized robot can be shot out of a gun, magnetically stick to a ship, and then climb up the ship's side to its deck.
According to The Register, the pirate droid “is to be developed from the firm's well-known "Throwbot", designed to be hurled through windows, or over walls and then trundle about spying out the situation using its infrared camera, whose imagery is relayed back to the operator's handset.”
Despite a possibly stellar career in ship capture, the mini buccaneer is actually designed to prevent piracy by gaining access to a ship in order to help take it back from pirate forces.
The complete system would involve a pirate throwbot being shot out of a cannon or gun mounted on another reconnaissance robot, or ship. Once the pirate robot hit the side, it would use its magnetic climbing wheels to travel up the side of the ship where it would release a probe that can be navigated around the area to discover the location of pirate forces, hostages or anything else that may be important to a mission.
ReconRobotics hopes that the pirate robot could help mitigate maritime piracy threats while protecting the lives of naval personnel and anti-piracy teams.
Now if they could only give it a mouth so it could grasp a knife or sword in its teeth as it climbed the side of a ship, it would strike fear in the hearts of pirates everywhere.
While the image of a small robotic ‘pirate’ scaling the side of a ship may seem absurd, the people at ReconRobotics thought it might be the perfect way to thwart real pirates. Their beer can-sized robot can be shot out of a gun, magnetically stick to a ship, and then climb up the ship's side to its deck.
According to The Register, the pirate droid “is to be developed from the firm's well-known "Throwbot", designed to be hurled through windows, or over walls and then trundle about spying out the situation using its infrared camera, whose imagery is relayed back to the operator's handset.”
Despite a possibly stellar career in ship capture, the mini buccaneer is actually designed to prevent piracy by gaining access to a ship in order to help take it back from pirate forces.
The complete system would involve a pirate throwbot being shot out of a cannon or gun mounted on another reconnaissance robot, or ship. Once the pirate robot hit the side, it would use its magnetic climbing wheels to travel up the side of the ship where it would release a probe that can be navigated around the area to discover the location of pirate forces, hostages or anything else that may be important to a mission.
ReconRobotics hopes that the pirate robot could help mitigate maritime piracy threats while protecting the lives of naval personnel and anti-piracy teams.
Now if they could only give it a mouth so it could grasp a knife or sword in its teeth as it climbed the side of a ship, it would strike fear in the hearts of pirates everywhere.
While the image of a small robotic ‘pirate’ scaling the side of a ship may seem absurd, the people at ReconRobotics thought it might be the perfect way to thwart real pirates. Their beer can-sized robot can be shot out of a gun, magnetically stick to a ship, and then climb up the ship's side to its deck.
According to The Register, the pirate droid “is to be developed from the firm's well-known "Throwbot", designed to be hurled through windows, or over walls and then trundle about spying out the situation using its infrared camera, whose imagery is relayed back to the operator's handset.”
Despite a possibly stellar career in ship capture, the mini buccaneer is actually designed to prevent piracy by gaining access to a ship in order to help take it back from pirate forces.
The complete system would involve a pirate throwbot being shot out of a cannon or gun mounted on another reconnaissance robot, or ship. Once the pirate robot hit the side, it would use its magnetic climbing wheels to travel up the side of the ship where it would release a probe that can be navigated around the area to discover the location of pirate forces, hostages or anything else that may be important to a mission.
ReconRobotics hopes that the pirate robot could help mitigate maritime piracy threats while protecting the lives of naval personnel and anti-piracy teams.
Now if they could only give it a mouth so it could grasp a knife or sword in its teeth as it climbed the side of a ship, it would strike fear in the hearts of pirates everywhere.
While the image of a small robotic ‘pirate’ scaling the side of a ship may seem absurd, the people at ReconRobotics thought it might be the perfect way to thwart real pirates. Their beer can-sized robot can be shot out of a gun, magnetically stick to a ship, and then climb up the ship's side to its deck.
According to The Register, the pirate droid “is to be developed from the firm's well-known "Throwbot", designed to be hurled through windows, or over walls and then trundle about spying out the situation using its infrared camera, whose imagery is relayed back to the operator's handset.”
Despite a possibly stellar career in ship capture, the mini buccaneer is actually designed to prevent piracy by gaining access to a ship in order to help take it back from pirate forces.
The complete system would involve a pirate throwbot being shot out of a cannon or gun mounted on another reconnaissance robot, or ship. Once the pirate robot hit the side, it would use its magnetic climbing wheels to travel up the side of the ship where it would release a probe that can be navigated around the area to discover the location of pirate forces, hostages or anything else that may be important to a mission.
ReconRobotics hopes that the pirate robot could help mitigate maritime piracy threats while protecting the lives of naval personnel and anti-piracy teams.
Now if they could only give it a mouth so it could grasp a knife or sword in its teeth as it climbed the side of a ship, it would strike fear in the hearts of pirates everywhere.
While the image of a small robotic ‘pirate’ scaling the side of a ship may seem absurd, the people at ReconRobotics thought it might be the perfect way to thwart real pirates. Their beer can-sized robot can be shot out of a gun, magnetically stick to a ship, and then climb up the ship's side to its deck.
According to The Register, the pirate droid “is to be developed from the firm's well-known "Throwbot", designed to be hurled through windows, or over walls and then trundle about spying out the situation using its infrared camera, whose imagery is relayed back to the operator's handset.”
Despite a possibly stellar career in ship capture, the mini buccaneer is actually designed to prevent piracy by gaining access to a ship in order to help take it back from pirate forces.
The complete system would involve a pirate throwbot being shot out of a cannon or gun mounted on another reconnaissance robot, or ship. Once the pirate robot hit the side, it would use its magnetic climbing wheels to travel up the side of the ship where it would release a probe that can be navigated around the area to discover the location of pirate forces, hostages or anything else that may be important to a mission.
ReconRobotics hopes that the pirate robot could help mitigate maritime piracy threats while protecting the lives of naval personnel and anti-piracy teams.
Now if they could only give it a mouth so it could grasp a knife or sword in its teeth as it climbed the side of a ship, it would strike fear in the hearts of pirates everywhere.