Wolverine Bp202 Camera Laptop Backpack @ Amazon.com
|
It was a worst-case scenario for Specialist Five Doug “Dusty” Rhodes one bloody day in Vietnam. Vietcong snipers were targeting Rhodes and two fellow soldiers, one of whom was standing on a land mine while the other was attempting to place a pin in the device to keep it from exploding. Rhodes, who was later awarded a Bronze Star for heroism, ran to an open area and drew fire while the device was disarmed; and all three men escaped. Fast forward more than three decades. Today’s soldiers in places like Afghanistan and Iraq are no less heroic, but the twenty-first-century EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) gimmicks they have on their side do the dual duties of both drawing fire and disarming explosive devices-all without exposing persons to the dangers they so routinely handle. No doubt with regards to it: “Robots in Iraq save lives,” says Sgt. First Class Jeff Sarver, who has trained with and deployed EOD robots in Iraq, Bosnia, Korea and the U.S. “The most impressive thing I’ve seen a robot do was to unzip a suicide vest off a suicide bomber and then take the vest off,” recounts Sarver, stationed at Fort McCoy (Wisconsin) and not long back returned from service abroad. He describes the kind of multitasking “buddy” that will take the bullet for you, each time— and diffuse a bomb with one (mechanical) arm tied behind it is back, so to speak. WHAT THEY CAN DO Robot names are exotic: PackBot, ANDROS, Vanguard, ODIS, SWORDS, TALON. But they’re all business. This robotic corps may wade through a foot of sewer water, climb stairs and over rubble, find and defuse old ordnance, distinguish a “false exhaust” in the undercarriage of a terrorist’s car. They may ferret out and neutralize biohazards, radiation and explosive gimmicks concealed in buildings, holes in the ground, wet concrete, even in a pile of corpses. Here’s a rundown of the capablenesses of numerous of the robotic EOD gadgets presently in use by U.S. armed forces in military hotspots overseas. (Of course, galore capablenesses overlap, but this listing will demonstrate the unbelievable skillfulness of our robotic EOD corps as a whole.) PackBot, fictitious by iRobot, weighs less than 24 kilograms, and once offloaded from it is backpack may be deployed in less than two minutes. It may worm it is way into sewers and other dangerous and constricted spaces covered with anything from slick tile to gooey mud. With eight interchangeable payload modules, it senses chemical and biological hazards, detects mines, deploys GPR (ground penetrating radar) and reaches as far as two meters in any direction while supplying eyes and ears for it is remote operators. The ANDROS line of robots fictitious by REMOTEC (a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman) is as versatile as a circus family. The Mark V-A1, a heavy-duty vehicle with a distinctive articulated track, may climb 45 degree stairs and plow over obstacles as high as 24 inches. It has a manipulator arm, gripper, TV cameras and audio, and lights. Its littler brothers, the F6A and the Mini-ANDROS II, are scaled-down models that may get through tighter spaces like airplane aisles and grant quick tool change-outs while still tackling tough terrains. The largest, strongest, wheeled ANDROS is the Wolverine, an environmentally-sealed unit that may operate in high temperatures and humidity to facilitate both remote watching and delicate manipulation tasks. Finally, over 500 ANDROS Wheelbarrow units deployed in 40 countries have the capacity to alter center of gravity, neutralize landmines and carry tools like disruptors and instrumentation to detect explosive and chemical dangers. All the ANDROS vehicles may be controlled from a distance thru radio control, fiber optic cable reel, or portable cable reel. Typical price for an ANDROS: $80,000-plus each. Vanguard(TM) robots such as the MKII may slip beneath the bumper of a distrustful vehicle to inspect for the full range of CBRNE – chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive –threats. It may fit in the trunk of a police car or deploy from a military air drop. Its laptop computer-based command control unit responds to keystroke or joystick and the robot boasts an articulated arm, Proparms disrupters, and night surveillance cameras. It may convert from tracks to wheels in a matter of minutes. ODIS (Omni-Directional Inspection System), devised by the U.S. Tank-Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center (TARDEC), is a robot system for detecting explosive devices. Described as “a hovercraft on wheels,” it may move forward, backwards, right or left and rotate it is camera and lights separately or in combination. Even operators with minimal training can, with ODIS’s help, distinguish out-of-place wires or untrue exhaust pipes under a distrustful vehicle. To protect versus suicide bombers, a camera mast system allows inspection from a distance and communicates with a “palm-computer based translator system” to let ODIS interact with personnel to verify identifications and relay instructions to vehicle drivers. TALON (TM) robots (developed by Foster-Miller) offer cutting-edge sensing capacity for chemical, gas, radiation, and heat with readings that may be accessed simultaneously, remotely and in real time by means of a single integrated hand-held display (think multiple windows.) The transmitting unit sniffs out everything from gamma radiation to pepper spray and may measure 50 kinds of gas. The robot itself is man-portable and it is unmatched speed may pace a running soldier. It may plow through snow and surf and isn’t daunted by concertina wire or rock piles. TALON robots have finished more than 20,000 EOD missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. SMWS (Small Mobile Weapons System) TALON robots carry mounts for everything from shotguns, Barrett 50-caliber rifles and M240 machine guns to grenade launchers and M202 anti-tank rocket systems. In fact, “Time” magazine recognized TALON’s weaponized robot, SWORDS (Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System) as one of the most aweinspiring inventions of 2004, with the warning, “Insurgents, be afraid.” Operators may stand up to 1000 meters away to operate the units, which cost amid $150,000 to $230,000 each. RESILIENCE AND REPAIRS With that kind of price tag, you may bet repairs and spare constituents are a huge issue. A typical, repairable robot will finish more than 1000 missions. In the Near East, sand and oil are as much foes to the machines as the bad guys are to US soldier, meriting the observation that one day’s work in Iraq for a robot is equivalent to a year’s worth stateside. Thus, elements salvage and quick repairs urge priority for Iraq’s Joint Robotic System Repair Station, which has seen robots return with little left but the tracks. But they’re tough little droids. TALON, for instance, boasts that after the 2001 World Trade Center Attack, it is robotics units withstood 45 straight days of being decontaminated twice a day without the electronics failing. One TALON, the manufacturer claims, has been blown up three times but is back in combat with new arms, wiring and cameras. Another, riding on the roof of a Humvee which was crossing a bridge over a river in Iraq, was blown off into the water. To the delight of it is handlers, it is heavily-damaged control unit was competent to direct the TALON to drive itself up out of the river and back to him. Now, that’s maximizing resources. Does this mean that soldiers will become less indispensable or even obsolete as the robotics engineering science accelerates? Some think so, including Project Alpha, a U.S. Joint Forces Command analysis group, which predicts that by 2025, autonomous battlefield robots will be the rule, not the exception. But contrast that thinking to a recent incident reported in Stars and Stripes in which a group of engineers and armor soldiers of 1st Battalion, 13th Armor Regiment were patrolling near Camp Taji, Iraq. They became distrustful of a hollowed-out log that turned out to incorporate artillery wires. As a wheeled robot went down to blow up the log while the soldiers stayed at a safe distance, an insurgent remotely detonated a second bomb nearby, and a third bomb was discovered. The pattern of the second and third bombs was designed to catch the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Soldiers as they investigated the first. The bad guy may have been smarter than the robot, but turned out to be not as smart as the soldiers who learned from the experience. The lesson was unmistakable: Technology is great. But not just the engineering science has to keep up with the enemy, so do the humans. They’re not only the ones who invent, service, and utilise the machines: When bombs are the issue, people have to be right each time, because soldiers are irreplaceable to the ones who love them. WHAT’S ON THE ROBOT HORIZON? Many new robotic widgets are being produced for battlefield use. For instance, though the military presently uses unmanned surveillance airplanes operated by humans by remote control, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is manufacturing something more sophisticated. Its $4-billion, five-year program aims to invent networked autonomous aircraft (J-UCAS) that may fly in particular spatial arrangements and distinguish targets on which to drop bombs. Such gadgets will be impervious to humane error constituents caused by such things as fatigue and G-force while flying coordinated missions at up to 700 kilometers per hour. Honeywell not so long ago tested the MAV, or Micro Air Vehicle, a tiny (14-pound) DARPA project that operates by way of a ducted fan which has the engine and propeller inside a composite tube that serves as the flight surface. With a two-cylinder gasoline engine, it may “hover and stare” in ways that fixed-wing gadgets cannot, permitting it to deploy cameras and chemical sensors, flying up to 10,500 feet in altitude. Army-funded researchers are fabricating an unmanned ambulance. The 3500-pound REV, or Robotic Extraction Vehicle, may drag wounded soldiers to safety and shelter them on two stretchers with life-support schemes underneath it is armored exterior as they prepare for evacuation. And Sandia National Laboratories has with great success tested an EDS (Explosive Destruction System) that internalizes explosions and holds the blast, vapor, and fragments; as well as treats and destroys biohazards such as anthrax. For Sgt. First Class Sarver, improvements for EOD can’t come too soon. “People have walked on the moon and we’re still working with robots that have so much potential,” he says. His solution: let the present EOD robot-producing companies put their heads together to make a super-robot that has the speed of the TALON, the weight and frame of the ANDROS, the optics and configurations of the PackBot. Then, says, Sarver, “you’d have a actually nice robot.” Most helpful customer reviews 23 of 23 people found the following review helpful. I was in the market for a photo backpack around $100 which could carry most of my camera gear and have room for other stuff such as a jacket or lunch. When I came across the Wolverine BP-202 I liked that it resembled the National Geographic/Adorama Safari Style bags but was more of a traditional backpack, and also a bit larger. The construction looked solid and resembled my internal frame hiking backpack. I purchased it from Amazon.com for $109 shipped and when the box arrived I thought it was quite large for just a backpack. When I opened the box, the bag felt as if it had some weight to it which was nice compared to the LowePro Computrekker that I was previously looking at. The straps were the first thing to catch my attention because they were nicer than my hiking pack and the waist belt was of equal comfort and quality. I then noticed that the backpack actually has two aluminium inserts in the back to maintain rigidity and protect your laptop. The hip belt and aluminium inserts can all be removed if you want more of a traditional backpack with only the two straps. The photo compartment definitely could hold everything I listed above and have some extra room leftover without anything being cramped. The inner compartments were all customizable foam with velcro and fairly deep. The entire padded compartment (including the sidewalls) could be removed to use the backpack as just a backpack. There is a padded divider between the top and bottom compartments that could be removable allowing for maximum use of space. Most hiking bags this size would easily run in the $100-150 price range but themselves, then consider this has the ability to also be used as a photo/laptop backpack as well and its a bargain. There is a hidden pocket in the bottom of the pack containing a rain cover which covers the entire pack. The two side pockets are great for small items that get lost and have mesh to hold drinks. Whoever thought about this bag thought about durability because this bag is tough. I would be extremely surprised if anything were to ever get damaged in this bag. With all the room, this bag can carry a lot of gear, but the problem with that is usually the weight becomes an issue. Luckily the way this bag is made, much like a hiking backpack, the weight distribution is great once you properly fit the bag to your body. Google “fitting a backpack” to see how to properly fit this to your body. My 15.4 HP DV6000 laptop fits but getting it past the zipper is tight. In order to get your laptop in, you have to insert the entire top (or bottom) of your laptop in at one time and then rotate the rest in (like a folding knife) rather than just sliding it in like a CD. Once its in there is extra room though it doesn’t seem to slide around at all, and the padding is pretty intense. In order to carry a tripod on this bag, there is a fold out flap/pocket that you insert your tripod legs and strap the top to the upper part of your bag. It actually works very well and supports my 7.lb Tripod easily. I use an old nylon strap to keep the top really snug to my pack because the included bungee is sort of small and thin. Overall, I was far and away impressed by this bag because most of the stuff I was finding around the $100 price was either really small (tamrac adventure series/Nat Geographic)or low quality (lowepro Computrekker). This is a huge needle in the haystack of photo backpacks because if a different brand name were on it, the price would be a lit higher and more people might be using it. If anything happens to this bag, I would buy another one in a heartbeat. Likes about the bag: Dislikes about the bag: 17 of 17 people found the following review helpful. 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful. |
Amazing build quality, great size and very moderately priced for such a well built backpack.
), even empty this bag weighs a lot. Basically every time I look at it and think about a casual walk around town with my camera I think of how I should buy a smaller bag for everyday usage.
Similar Products To Wolverine Bp202 Camera Laptop Backpack
Wolverine BP202 Camera and Laptop Backpack – 10x14x20 Inches