The U.S. Army recently tested 30 UMN Scout robots at various world sites with a major emphasis on surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The UMN Scout robots (developed in the CSE department at UMN with funding from DARPA and NSF) are specialized wireless miniature robots that carry out low-level, usually parallel tasks aimed to meet the various mission objectives. Scouts include simple sensory units such as cameras and are rugged enough to withstand throws of 80 ft. Their cost is low and allows the creation of large distributed robot teams which can be quickly reconfigured based on the task's needs. More information about them can be found at the Center for Distributed Robotic home page.
