Lesson from the Consummate Professional

This's what great technology is about. ... Integrating common technology into an "effective" item that is expendable and dependable.

What makes Dr. Bill Wattenburg the consummate professional is his ability to create simple solutions to complex problems. He's famous for his ability to develop tools with material that anyone can find.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wattenburg
http://www.pushback.com/Wattenburg/

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Project definition:
Develop " a low-cost way to save soldiers' lives in Iraq."
... It's designed to be destroyed, so make it simple and stupid. But every time it gets destroyed, some soldier's life has been saved."


Grand Goal:
* Develop a cost-effective item that saves lives from land mines. No end date and real cost line.
* Must be easy to use.
* It must be expendable and dependable

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Robot May Someday Save Lives In Iraq
Only On 7
KGO By David Louie

Aug. 16 - KGO - One of the most creative minds in America, a Bay Area fixture, has been at it again. This time the man radio listeners call Dr. Bill Wattenburg may have come up with a low-tech way to save a lot of military lives in places like Iraq.

It's called a tethered scout robot. Engineers and scientists call it a low-cost way to save soldiers' lives in Iraq.

Bill Wattenburg, Ph.D. scientist: "It's designed to be destroyed, so make it simple and stupid. But every time it gets destroyed, some soldier's life has been saved."

It's Wattenburg's brain child, made mostly from components anybody can buy off the shelf.
/// * * * Trademark of Bill Wattenburg modus operadi. ... Typical Cal. engineering. Wattenburg got his MS and Phd in engineering from Cal Berkeley. ... If it is Stanford engineering, it would be backed with two VC. team .

Two design engineers from Cal State Chico's robotics program then created a 15-pound robot with a surveillance camera that can be sent out to investigate and destroy suspected bombs.

The military already has such devices, but they cost from $80,000 to $120,000 dollars. The robot was designed to be expendable but dependable at a cost of only $2,500 dollars.

Jason Coates, design engineer: "We get funny looks when we tell them how much this costs sometimes. They expect an extra zero on the end." The $200 controller is right off the shelf.

Pat Lewis, Lawrence Livermore Lab technician: "Anyone that has any experience with running a video game system would be more than adequately trained to run a system like this."

The $50 dollar monitor is made for the Sony Playstation 2. The chassis is $330 dollars and the camera is $120 dollars.

The unit operates on a 1,000-foot cable for a specific reason. Improvised bombs in Iraq are triggered by wireless devices. The cable prevents an accidental detonation.

The robots cost under $450,000 dollars to develop. Ten of them were made. Eight of them are undergoing field testing.
/// * * * $20,000 for the robot materials. $100,000 for the engineering development. A min of $325,000 for the management cost.

The tray on top can carry up to 10 pounds of explosives to blow up a bomb.

Troop injuries and fatalities continue to rise. In June, there were 1,481 improvised explosive device attacks in Iraq.

It's a long way from Livermore to the battlefields of Iraq. Hopefully soon we'll see the tethered scout vehicles are in use.

Copyright 2006, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=business&id=4469120

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