Mobile Automated Networked Tool Intelligent Spider (MANTIS)

The US Army requires new tools to enhance their operational capabilities and logistical support, allowing them to maintain a strategic advantage both on the maintenance line in the depot and in resource-scarce locations. Merge Plot is proposing a new tool, the Mobile Automated Networked Tool Intelligent Spider (MANTIS), which will serve as a force multiplier for the operator and allow them to conduct a wide range of repair and maintenance activities in controlled or remote locations, with fewer resources, greater efficiency, and in less time.  The device consists of an articulating robot arm with an automatic tool changer mounted on a “spider” type base.  This provides mobility, stability, and extreme functional utility to an operator.Spider cranes and automated robot arms are both existing technologies that come in a variety of sizes and configurations.  Currently fielded spider cranes have wheels or tracks driven by a motor, and outriggers that can be fixed into place to provide stability.  Articulating robot arms are commonplace and come in multiple sizes and configurations.  When integrated into a spider base, users in the field have access to stronger, heavier robot arms that would otherwise be too heavy to move and place without warehousing equipment. This increases the range of tasks that can be automated by increasing the operating payload of the robot arm, which increases the range of tooling options for end effectors. The addition of rapid automated tool changing serves the same function as in the industrial environment; that is, it allows one robot arm to switch between multiple tasks, increasing flexibility and reducing the overall capital costs for the operator.Merge Plot is proposing the MANTIS as a field ready device, deployable via Internal Airlift/Helicopter Slingable Container Unit (ISU).  This platform would allow the rapid setup of work cells capable of executing most of the tasks commonly done in industrial work cells in factories around the world, such as assembling, shaping, welding, moving, and palletizing raw materials, as well as grinding, cutting, painting and de-painting, and machine tending. It will also provide the same capabilities when integrated into a depot-level shop floor.This proposal touches on three elements of the open topics: Collaborative Robotics (Cobots), Modular Production Systems, and Field-Ready Engineering Systems.  The MANTIS is a highly capable, highly flexible solution to challenges faced by equipment operators and field repair technicians.