Commercial Linux to power military drone

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Feb 6, 2006

LynuxWorks has been chosen as the embedded operating system vendor of choice for the Military R-Gator, an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle developed by iRobot Corp and John Deere.

LynuxWorks has been chosen as the embedded operating system (OS) vendor of choice for the Military R-Gator, an autonomous unmanned ground vehicle developed by iRobot Corp and John Deere.

iRobot is using LynuxWorks' BlueCat Linux, a commercial-grade embedded operating system based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, to power the Military R-Gator's robotic control, navigation and object avoidance systems.

The R-Gator is built on the John Deere M-Gator military utility vehicle platform and enhanced with iRobot's proprietary robot technology.

R-Gator is an intelligent, unmanned ground vehicle that can autonomously perform dangerous military missions including acting as an unmanned scout: "point man", perimeter guard, pack/ammo/supply carrier and more for soldiers, marines and airmen.

Based on the Linux 2.6 kernel, BlueCat Linux is an implementation of the Linux model enhanced for use in embedded systems ranging from small consumer-type devices to large-scale, multi-CPU systems.

With BlueCat Linux, iRobot can use a stable, reliable commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) embedded OS to get the R-Gator to market faster and cheaper than in-house or proprietary OSes.

"The iRobot John Deere R-Gator can perform treacherous and strenuous duties, keeping soldiers out of harm's way", said Vice Admiral Joe Dyer (US Navy, retired), Executive Vice President and General Manager, iRobot.

"BlueCat Linux provides a stable, reliable operating system on which iRobot can build the robot's crucial navigation and control applications".

"We continue to see Linux and open standards gain tremendous momentum into major application areas across the military, including the realm of mission-critical military systems", said Dr Inder Singh, CEO and Chairman of LynuxWorks.

"Linux is rapidly becoming the leading de-facto open standard embedded platform in both commercial and military systems such as the iRobot R-Gator that require a high degree of interoperability and software reuse".

"BlueCat Linux meets iRobot's unique embedded software requirements while at the same time enabling them to get the John Deere R-Gator to market at a significantly lower cost".