Small DC Motors Power Mini Reconnaissance Robot

Ruggedized motors, coupled with a titanium housing and clever clutch design deliver a dumbbell-sized unmanned ground vehicle that can survive a 30 foot drop onto concrete.

On March 22, 2012, French commandos surrounded a building in Toulouse where an Islamic extremist was holed up after a shooting rampage that had already left six dead. The team needed to get inside the apartment where the suspect had barricaded himself. The problem was they didn’t have a clear picture of the situation—at least not until a mini reconnaissance robot from Recon- Robotics came into play. The team threw the unit—the ReconScout XT—onto a landing in the zone of fire, where it peeked through an open doorway and began transmitting images, allowing the team to pinpoint the suspect’s location and monitor his activities. The information allowed the team to successfully end the standoff and subdue the suspect without further loss of life.