First-line military troops and civilian first responders can now be put to work from a safe distance in case of dangerous situations like defusing an explosive or handling a toxic mishap – thanks to fiber optic cable operated robotics equipment.

 

Robots have been put to work in the field of military and security operations, deep-sea research, subterranean mining, aerospace and many more but in order to perform in operations that involve secure communications and full-motion, real time video transmissions they have to be incorporated with rugged fiber optic cable technology.

 

A research institute Applied Research Associates has pointed that they have been trying to develop new applications that will keep people working in the front lines of dangerous occupations have a way to do their jobs in a safer manner. ARA provides advanced research, engineering, and technical support and also manufactures specialized robotic vehicles.

 

ARA officials claim that it has the expertise in bringing together advanced modern technologies and making them work successfully. For instance they have developed 8,000-pound-class unmanned ground vehicles for handling unexploded ordinance which the institute claims have been deployed by U.S. Air Force and Marines to clean up unexploded sub-munitions and other ordinance.

 

David Timian, vice president of ARA, has stated that for a number of reasons they use FCCS to control the vehicles and to also provide for on-board, remote video monitoring of the environment from the command post.

 

Radio frequency connections that are usually installed for communicating may not or will not work if there is no line of sight, RF jamming or for situations where communications has to strictly between the equipment and the operator. But ARA’s vehicles are built with ruggedized fiber optic cable produced by Optical Cable Corporation which are extremely strong, lightweight and tightly buffered cables.

 

ARA says that its FCCS cables can be smoothly paid out and retrieved as they have a unique tension system. It cables length runs for two miles and the operator can work the robotic vehicle far away from hazard and still have full operational capabilities.

 

One researcher pointed out that by working with robotic applications one can realize that many of them share requirements and characteristics that can be offered only by ruggedized fiber cable.

 

The use of ruggedized fiber optic cable to operate robotic equipment in harsh environments originated with the development of armored, tactical-grade fiber cable developed by OCC for battlefield applications. This cable can survive not only rough handling by installers and operators, but will also withstand the crushing weight and abrasion of heavy equipment such as battle tanks running over it.

 

The cables developed by OCC feature specially formulated sheath combined with advanced fiber core buffering that will safeguard the cable from harsh environments. The ruggedized tactical cable can assist in mission-critical direct connection, with the ability to unleash large amounts of bandwidth to engage a robot into complex mechanical operations, instrument readings, high quality sound and high definition full motion video.