A new era of robot warfare has been launched with the US Army employing 100 TALON robots equipped with off-the-shelf chemical, gas, temperature, and radiation sensors for deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan. The explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) robots are to be used for a variety of missions ranging from clearing live grenades to neutralising mines in shallow water, and can be adapted for small mobile weapons systems (SMWS) for force protection.

The TALON robots, built by US company Foster-Miller, have already performed over 10,000 explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) missions. They are rugged, all-weather platforms capable of manoeuvring in desert or beach sand, snow, water, grassy or wooded terrain, and inside buildings. TALON robots can climb stairs and sustain falls and right themselves. They have been lowered into landing zones by helicopters, dropped from moving vehicles and launched offshore to reach underwater targets.

The TALON is a general-purpose modular robot with a versatile 64-inch pincer arm. It is controlled through RF or a fibre optic link from an attaché-sized operator control unit (OCU) or wearable OCU. On the ground the TALON can reach a vehicle speed of 6.6 km/h and last a four-hour run time. Mounted on the TALON robot are:

The APD 2000 detects chemical warfare agents, gamma radiation and irritants such as pepper spray and mace. The Draeger Multiwarn II can measure more than 50 gases including carbon dioxide, methane, propane, fuels and solvents. The Raytek Raynger MX4+ is the most advanced portable thermometer in the industry and the only one designed with precise infrared beam tracking. It is accurate to within 1 deg C and can be used to remotely sense the heat of a fire behind a closed door. The Thermo Fisher Scientific FH 40 GL takes measurements between 30 kilo-electron-volts and 1.3 mega-electron-volts and can record a radiological exposure rate from 1 micro-Roentgen per hour to 10 Roentgens per hour.