Thanks in part to highly effective aluminum soldering techniques, a state-of-the-art robot could help save the lives of Naval officers boarding vessels that are suspected of smuggling, embargo violations or piracy, according to Popular Mechanics.
The Stingray weighs about three pounds and can be used by U.S. Navy Visit, Board, Search and Seizure (VBSS) teams to avoid potentially deadly booby traps or assaults by a ship’s crew. It is made of a carbon-fiber and aluminum chassis and can be tossed down the “ladder of death” into the depths of a vessel before sailors themselves make the descent.
Made to be extremely durable and waterproof, the Stingray can be tossed from one compartment to the next without being damaged, so its video camera can alert the VBSS team of any obstacles or hostiles in the area. It is even equipped with a strobing light that can be used to simulate the visual disorientation one would feel with a flashbang grenade.Then, the team would have a tactical advantage over any adversaries planning to engage them in combat.
“It functions similarly to flashbang grenades, without the audio portion, but is reusable,” Hoa Nguyen, one of the Stingray’s developers from the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, told the news source. “It is meant to temporarily blind the hostile personnel in a confined, dark space.”
By understanding advanced techniques of how to bond aluminum to other materials, researchers were able to build a robotic system that will help save American military lives and make international waters safer from pirates, smugglers and their ilk.
As we continue to innovate new ways of joining dissimilar metals and various other substances, the potential for saving lives will grow exponentially.