As part of their senior design project at Northeastern University, Glen Chiachhieri and seven other computer and electrical engineering students built this Wi-Fi repeating robot that’s designed to make it easier to deploy a wireless network in dangerous or hazardous places.
The 150-pound treaded behemoth is actually strong enough to carry a 200-pound human passenger, but instead it’s chock full of wireless internet gear including a Wi-Fi router, a pan-and-tilt webcam with night vision, GPS hardware so it’s location can always be tracked, and enough rechargeable batteries to let it operate for up to 12 hours.
What’s even more impressive is that the bot can be used to deploy a wireless network with a range of about one kilometre using a couple of self-contained long-range repeaters that can be dropped anywhere it roams. It can even be controlled and configured from a browser-based interface, so it’s not dependent on a single laptop or device running custom software or using specific hardware. So think of it as the nerdier cousin of the IED sniffing robots used by the bomb squad, but still just as tough.
[Glen Chiachhieri via Technabob]