Description
Backyard to Battlefield takes you
through the amazing highs and lows of
the world of the 'outsider' defense
contractor - the people working out of
their garages and workshops to create
some of the most radical military
inventions out there.
Working in small teams without the
support of the Big Guns of the defense
industry, these intensely motivated
young people are creating some mind
blowing new tools for the ultimate R&D
organization: the U.S. military.
In the premiere of Backyard to
Battlefield, we follow Geoff and Mike
Howe, identical twin brothers from
Maine, who are building a prototype for
the "Ripsaw," the world's fastest UGV -
Unmanned Ground Vehicle. This compact
tank-like invention will be able to ram
under, over, and through some of the
toughest terrain on the planet at more
than 80 miles per hour - almost twice
that of a standard tank.
In urban combat or mountainous terrain,
the Ripsaw promises to change the face
of military missions. Its agility and
speed are matched by its ingenious
modular design, making it simple to
maintain and utterly reliable. For
reconnaissance, for flank protection,
and more, the Ripsaw could be a game
changer. Find out more about the Ripsaw.
Not too far away, in Cambridge
Massachusetts, Backyard to Battlefield
also follows a very different story as a
group of young MIT grads challenge
themselves to build a robot with
superhuman qualities - the BEAR - that
promised to be able to go into combat
zones, rescue wounded soldiers by
picking them up, and carrying them to
safety.
For a robot, this is an enormous
challenge - to be strong enough, gentle
enough, and controlled enough not to
hurt the person it is sent out to save.
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