US SOCOM Orders SARCOS Robotics Guardian XO Exoskeletons
Sarcos Robotics has published a press release announcing that the US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has purchased pre-production versions of the company’s Guardian XO exoskeletons. The number of ordered units and the price of the deal are undisclosed.
Exoskeletons, in general, can be used in many military applications related to carrying and transporting heavy loads – from warehouses to frontline. It is unknown in which roles exactly these exoskeletons will be tested or deployed.
Below you can find the aforementioned press release in full.
SALT LAKE CITY and BELLEVUE, Wash. – March 18, 2019 – Today, Sarcos Robotics, a global leader in robotic systems that augment, rather than replace humans working in the industrial, public safety and military sectors, announced that it has been awarded a contract by the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) to deliver a pre-production version of its Guardian™ XO® (“XO”) full-body, autonomously powered robotic exoskeleton. The XO is capable of operating for up to eight hours per battery charge, while walking at three miles per hour and carrying up to 200 pounds of payload. With the ability to “hot swap” rechargeable batteries in the field, XO run-time is essentially unlimited.
The USSOCOM XO contract follows Sarcos’ recent announcements regarding collaborations with both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy to develop and evaluate variations of the Guardian™ XO® for use cases specific to these services. With 17 years of development efforts and more than $175 million invested in R&D, Sarcos has been laser-focused on ensuring the Guardian XO Max is safe, intuitive and power efficient. Sarcos recently shared significant power and performance enhancements to the XO, including significant improvements in power consumption, control system functionality and load transfer.
ABOUT SARCOS
Sarcos Robotics is the world’s leader in mobile, dexterous, tele-operated robots that combine human intelligence, instinct and judgment with robotic strength, endurance and precision to augment worker performance. Leveraging more than 25 years of research and development, Sarcos makes revolutionary robotics products designed to save lives, reduce injury and improve productivity, including the Sarcos® Guardian™ S, Guardian™ GT, and Guardian™ XO™. Sarcos is revolutionizing a myriad of industries by deploying robots that will create the safest, most productive and cost-effective work force in the world. Sarcos’ investors include Caterpillar, GE Ventures, Microsoft, and Schlumberger. Sarcos is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, with additional offices in the Seattle area. For more information please visit www.sarcos.com.
OVD will be following the developments around this contract and reporting its readers any new details.
Images from www.sarcos.com