Dragon Runner

[1] The original project was funded by the United States Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in conjunction with Carnegie Mellon University.

Early development was conducted by the United States Naval Research Laboratory, including initial design, production and field-testing.

In January 2010, under a contract worth £12m with QinetiQ, around 100 Dragon Runners were ordered by the British army to improve the ability of bomb disposal experts to find and deactivate improvised explosive devices on the front line in Afghanistan.

Dragon Runner's front-mounted, tilting camera provides a video feed that is relayed back to its master controller by a wireless modem.

Dragon Runner can be operated in three different modes: Modifications include flippers that enable it to climb stairs and treads that can all be snapped on quickly and easily in the field by a soldier with no tools.