Robots are being developed for future battleground rescue efforts

An improvised explosive device detonates in Iraq, taking down a U.S. service member. Troops, rather than sending one or two medics to drag him to safety, deploy an unmanned robotic extraction vehicle. The robot pulls the wounded service member onto a board and drives him to a first responder.

The scenario sounds futuristic, but "Star Trek" it's not. Researchers headquartered at Fort Detrick and around the country are gaining headway on making extraction robots a reality.

Gary Gilbert is the robotics program manager at the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, or TATRC, headquartered on post. During his doctorate work at the University of Pittsburgh on artificial intelligence and robotics, Gilbert wondered why robotics couldn't be employed to do some of the dangerous battlefield extraction.

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