Robot Radio Relays

Communications between troops in an urban area can be a problem due to interference and line of sight blocked by buildings.
Can you hear me now?
DARPA is looking to robots for a solution to the dropped call problem.
They are looking for proposals for mobile robots that act as radio relays around a city. The robots, called LANdroids, would be dropped by soldiers around the city to create a network of communications nodes. The robots should be smart enough to know how to stay online under changing conditions - for example if some of them get destroyed. The robots would position themselves so they can always hear someone else in the network.

DARPA would like the disposable robots to be about the size of a deck of cards, cost under US $100 each and stay online up to 14 days.

There will be an information day on July 6 for potential bidders.


DARPA Information Processing Technology Office

PDF LANdroid Proposal Information