A team of undergraduates at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has taken on a challenge to turn a wheelchair into an autonomous security robot that could help protect unmanned installations, like missile silos, for the United States Air Force.
With just a tracked all-terrain wheelchair, or trackchair, and about $8,000 for supplies, the three students are building the proof-of-concept robot with the goal of demonstrating technology the Air Force one day could use to safeguard thousands of unmanned bases, such as missile silos, around the world. The military wants to have robots at these bases that can respond to and investigate intrusion alarms and other warnings within two minutes.