# A soldier's robotic response to Kandahar's deadly threat



## PMedMoe (17 Mar 2009)

Article Link

GLORIA GALLOWAY 

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

March 17, 2009 at 3:57 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — Simon Engler is a restless scientist whose desire for military action may ultimately save the lives of Canadians in Afghanistan.

Sapper Engler studied astrophysics and mathematics at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia and computational physics in the University of Amsterdam prior to joining the military.

But "[I was] sitting behind a computer when there was a war going on. So I said, 'Hey, I will just join up for a few years and get to play soldier and maybe see war and come back,' " he said last week during an interview in the technology-filled crate on the Kandahar Air Field that serves as his part-time office.

Sapper Engler, a 31-year-old Calgary man, found himself driving with his fellow soldiers in armoured vehicles over the dusty roads of Kandahar, where every bump could trigger an explosive device. He also found that, while military life offered its share of excitement, he was bored when he was away from his computers for too long.

Blessed with both smarts and a healthy sense of self preservation, Sapper Engler decided even before coming to the war zone, that he needed to make the trips less dangerous. He set out to create a robot that, when perfected, will be able to roll over the Afghan terrain and look for objects planted by the enemy.

"Every day that we go out, I have to get out of the vehicle and walk to an object and make sure it's not dangerous and then come back in," he explained.

"I thought, if we have something simple to go up and look for us, we don't have to get out of the vehicle and we can still assess the situation. So I came up with this design and built it over the past six months."







More on link


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## chrisf (17 Mar 2009)

Good on 'im! If there's one thing I've always preached to my troops... "If there's a problem, don't sit around and complain about it, fix it!"


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## The Bread Guy (17 Mar 2009)

Also good to see some of his education & experience put to good use, even at the sapper level - well done!


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## observor 69 (17 Mar 2009)

Just a Sig Op said:
			
		

> Good on 'im! If there's one thing I've always preached to my troops... "If there's a problem, don't sit around and complain about it, fix it!"



Particularly those with :
Sapper Engler studied astrophysics and mathematics at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia and computational physics in the University of Amsterdam prior to joining the military.
 ;D


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## mover1 (17 Mar 2009)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> Also good to see some of his education & experience put to good use, even at the sapper level - well done!



Even at the sapper level huh....I forgot that we should dismiss people due to their rank and stature. 
Along the same lines... there was a feature in this months Airforce Magazine about a Leading Aircraftsman (LAC Lionel McCaffery) He made a full size working replica of the Silver Dart.  THe same one which is now in the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.


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## observor 69 (17 Mar 2009)

Ya but that was back in the day when  LAC was a somebody and a Cpl was close to God.  

Being probably the only one here who was an LAC.


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## Nauticus (17 Mar 2009)

mover1 said:
			
		

> Even at the sapper level huh....I forgot that we should dismiss people due to their rank and stature.
> Along the same lines... there was a feature in this months Airforce Magazine about a Leading Aircraftsman (LAC Lionel McCaffery) He made a full size working replica of the Silver Dart.  THe same one which is now in the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.


I think the first part of his post was a joke. Don't be so uptight.


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## The Bread Guy (17 Mar 2009)

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> Also good to see some of his education & experience put to good use, even at the sapper level - well done!


Just to clarify - I really AM hugely impressed with someone with this level of education being able to apply it directly to help the troops at he pointy end.  No insult intended...



			
				Baden  Guy said:
			
		

> Ya but that was back in the day when  LAC was a somebody and a Cpl was close to God.


From the days of, as the little stone monument at the Air Force museum in Trenton puts it, "Flight sergeant - from distinction to extinction," right?


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## KingKikapu (17 Mar 2009)

Cool little gizmo.  Very impressive.


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## gun runner (23 Mar 2009)

It doesn't look too robust for the terrain that I have noticed in Afghanistan. The terrain is more rocky and uneven, this gadget looks like a toy car, built for sand lots, not to hunt for IED's in the back woods of the sandbox. Ubique


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## benny88 (23 Mar 2009)

Based on the title of the thread I thought it was going to be a story about someone who came under contact, pointed his rifle, and said "Bang, bang."
    Good on ya, Sapper.


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## M Feetham (23 Mar 2009)

I think it is outstanding to see someone take an active part in trying to preserve not only his life but those of his wingers as well. It's also nice to see that not everyone with a university education only want to be an officer. Not saying that there aren't troops and nco's out there who have gone on to higher learning, but usually kids these days go the officer route to get the free edumacation. You know what I mean? +1 for the sapper.


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## Pieman (4 Sep 2009)

TV Interview  here.


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## CountDC (9 Sep 2009)

gun runner said:
			
		

> It doesn't look too robust for the terrain that I have noticed in Afghanistan. The terrain is more rocky and uneven, this gadget looks like a toy car, built for sand lots, not to hunt for IED's in the back woods of the sandbox. Ubique



I think the intent is that instead of someone getting out of the vehicle to check something on/beside the road they could send this little fella instead. That would be assuming that if the road is good enough for them to drive on then a little remote car could travel a short distance on it. Looks good in the TV interview.


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## Pieman (14 Nov 2010)

For those interested, the Prairie Dog is now on display at the Military Museum in Calgary.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n287/phasespace/PrairieDogMuseum_small.jpg


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## gun runner (14 Nov 2010)

You would think if it worked out that well they would leave it in theatre and train other troops in its use..not placed in a museum where it does no one but the public any benefit. My :2c:. Ubique


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## Pieman (14 Nov 2010)

It was the first prototype, and finished testing so it was not going to be used anymore.


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## gun runner (14 Nov 2010)

Ok, great! Thanks for the info. Cheers!


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## Pieman (10 Dec 2010)

Display has been updated with display showing videos and pictures:


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## dogger1936 (11 Dec 2010)

Aside from this sapper's brilliance....I love the controller idea! I would date myself if I decided to try and guess which gaming system it was from but that is EXCELLENT! Kid would wanna be playing with this thing at the fob in their offtime. Honing their skills (I'm sure games would ensue until one got broken).

Fantastic stuff. While all I heard were guys complaining about getting out and checking something he realised the level of suck and developed something to make his life suck less.

CHIMO!


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## Thompson_JM (11 Dec 2010)

Brilliant!

I love the use of a Playstation 2 Controller... young folk would probably have very little trouble adapting to using it!


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## 392 (11 Dec 2010)

While in theatre, I had the opportunity to set up some training to see if this little ROV would be effective in what it was designed for. It is definitely a neat piece of kit, and a great use of his university skills to help with a very dangerous threat. 

That being said, I think there are some misconceptions in this thread about this being used to replace soldiers conducting searches. Without getting into a heated debate or SOPs, nothing replaces the Mk 1 eyeball to visually check areas being VPS'd and even though it sucks, this ROV would have been a tool in the proverbial "toolbox" to aid - but not replace - soldiers conducting searches.

Before the dogpiling starts and the "how the **** do you know" bit kicks in, I reference the number of incidents that happen almost daily in-theatre where areas are physically searched and declared clear, but something was found immediately after. Speaking as someone who has the good fortune to have an ROV in my permanent toolbox, and understands without a doubt what an outstanding tool it is, I can count on one hand how many times I *didn't* find something on the X that was different from what I saw in the screen before I went downrange. 

We're not at the point technology-wise yet to completely take the soldier out of the search, but from what I saw while in theatre, this Spr's initiative and outside-the-box thinking may just have been the push to get things rolling in that direction  :2c:


Edit for wording.


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## muskrat89 (11 Dec 2010)

> I think there are some serious misconceptions in this thread about this being used to replace soldiers conducting searches.



Where do you get that? I went back through and most of the comments are congratulatory in nature. I didn't read anyone prattling on about replacing troops with gizmos    ???


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## 392 (11 Dec 2010)

muskrat89 said:
			
		

> Where do you get that? I went back through and most of the comments are congratulatory in nature. I didn't read anyone prattling on about replacing troops with gizmos    ???



There were several comments, including from Spr Engler himself, of using his ROV instead of soldiers. I'm not dinging the well-deserved congratulatory posts, but rather providing some insight. Something I didn't mention, but the comments in theatre about this machine being mass produced and replacing boots on the ground searching also contributed to my post.


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## MPwannabe (11 Dec 2010)

Initiative like this saves lives. This is a great story, and congratulations are in order for a spot-on soldier.


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## chrisf (11 Dec 2010)

What's frightening is the price we'd pay for somthing like this if you bought it from private industry.... and the price we pay for any sort of ROV (land, air or sea), when the technology to build somthing like this has become so common and cheap (I particularly like the use of the video game controller, I've seen it done a few times already... they're quite durable and somone else has already spent a fortune making them ergonomic)

If we were really smart, and I mean really smart, we (the forces) would make a shopping list of ROVs we wanted, write clear specs for them, and rather then put it to tender, make a public competition out of it. Put up cash prizes for all the winning designs, open it to any group or individual in Canada (There's already a variety of robotics competitions, with the same thing, a written spec, and various schools/groups/individuals build robots to that spec and compete) , put the ROVs through the proving process as part of the "competition" film the whole thing, and when we're done, hand it over to the discovery channel/OLN/any network that will take it, free of charge, as a three season television series. 

The end result would be:

- Inovative & cheap new designs
- Fantastic public relations


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## Pieman (12 Dec 2010)

> There were several comments, including from Spr Engler himself, of using his ROV instead of soldiers.


I don't think anyone was trying to say the technology was to replace soldiers searching. The concept of the platform was not only examined for use with Combat Engineers, but numerous other applications.


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## Pieman (17 Jul 2011)

Again for those interested this is the Prairie Dog II, a significantly more advanced version of the original. It is a fair bit larger (1.5 feet wide, 2 feet long) with GPS, Acceleratometer, Gyroscope, comapass, 3D mapping (Xbox Kinect Sensor). Has essential AI capabilities including obstacle avoidance, GPS waypoint following, Object recognition and tracking. The Kinect sensor allows for human skeleton tracking which allows for human tracking, human gesture commands. The voice capabilities of Kinect allow for voice commands, and through some additional sensors: sound localization.

This is a second prototype, hence the boxy looking structure. A manufactured version is on the board for sometime early next year.

The new chassis allows for tremendous ground clearance, and terrain capabilities. It is based upon the combination of a lunar rover, and a type of Australian tractor. 

It has moved from a military application (sadly) to a research/testing platform with private security, remote sensing, and mining applications in mind. Cost to build was about 3K.


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## Pieman (16 Nov 2011)

A couple videos of new platform. One is of the robot moving through building and second is on board cameras and sensors. Can see what the on board computer sees. Indoor navigation is a whole different can of worms. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2IxxW2S33I&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeIEz2sDGco&feature=related

Enjoy!


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## Pieman (20 Nov 2011)

A couple more videos here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gr_aqi-DicQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e4lYzTK6Mo&feature=related


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