Cisco Develops Mobile Robots for Wireless Nets

coondoggie writes "Cisco has developed a set of small smart robots, which can act as wireless communications relays, that sense when a mobile user is moving out of service range, and can follow the user to maintain connectivity. According to Dave Buster, product marketing manager for the Cisco Global Government Solutions Group, the robots can follow a user almost anywhere to maintain connectivity. Published reports said the robots were part of Cisco's "Information on the move" initiative — a wide ranging plan to secure all things wireless. Whether or not the systems has an enterprise application, it is of interest to the military and initiatives such as the Army's Future Combat Systems which uses a variety of advanced systems to achieve battleground superiority."

Intended for the military?

[MichaelSmith]

it is of interest to the military and initiatives such as the Army's Future Combat Systems which uses a variety of advanced systems to achieve battleground superiority. A wireless robot such as this could play a part in the communications of those systems, experts say.

Hard to imagine the military going for a cheap hack like Wifi when they have the resources for a proper satellite comms system. And this roving relay thing just looks like a cheap toy to me. Maybe OK for shopping centres but not the sort of thing you want to waste your time digging out of sand dunes in Iraq.

Take out the wifi bit and you are left with an autonomous rover/UAV which is interesting but not really ciscos job. Looks like a bad fit to me.

beats using people

[192939495969798999]

My grandfather was in WWII, and he had to run phone lines/communications out onto the battlefield and back... using a robot is way less life-threatening!

Re:Brilliant!

[Anonymous Coward]

EX? You mean that cute girl in Gamestop that kind of smiled at you once?

Re:beats using people

[aproposofwhat]

Kudos to your grandad - the guys who ran the comms wires were second only to senior officers on the sniper's priority list.

Not surprised he ran - you wouldn't get me anywhere near a job like that.