Fido, The Bomb Sniffing Robot

The military is set to break out a bomb sniffing robot that will help soldiers better detect roadside bombs.

With roadside bombs accounting for nearly 70 percent of U.S. military deaths, the military announced that Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot Corp. will begin supplying the military with 100 of it's Fido bomb sniffing robots within the next few months.

Fido is the first robot that comes equipped with with an integrated explosives sensor. The bomb-sniffing sensor is part of the robot, with its readings displayed on the controller along with camera images. Otherwise, a soldier would have to approach the suspect object with a sensor or try to attach it to a robot. The new robot has a 7-foot manipulator arm so it can use the sensor to scan the inside and undercarriage of vehicles for bombs.

For the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military is currently using around 5,000 robots to perform different missions in a effort to better safeguard the troops. In 2004, only 150 robots were being used in the field. The U.S. government is looking to spend approximately 1.7 billion dollars to bring more robots to the field. This spending is up from the 100 million that was spent in 2004.

These bomb sniffing robots will be especially helpful in situations where soldiers may suspect there is a bomb but are not sure because they may need a better understanding of what scenario the terrorists are plotting.

These robots do have some drawbacks such as indicating a false positive because of bomb residue all ready in the area. Another drawback is that every move the robot makes has to be controlled by a solider operating the controls.

Despite any limitations these robots may have, these robots have to better than what the soldiers are presently doing to detect possible bombs. Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Baker, 26, of Olean,NY describes on way soldiers currently check for bombs is by standing as far away from a suspected bomb as possible, and then dragging a rope with hooks attached over the suspected bomb hoping this action will either disable or explode the suspected bomb.

If these robots can save even one soldier's life, than any money spent by the government to get these robots into action is money well spent.

Read more at Yahoo News