RE2 Robotics Wins Contract to Design Assistive Manipulator Arm for the U.S. Army
PITTSBURGH, PA – RE2 Robotics announced today that the Company was selected by the U.S. Army to receive a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to design an assistive robotic arm for the Applied Robotics for Installation and Base Operations (ARIBO) automated transport system pilot project at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The goal of ARIBO is to provide automated, on-demand transportation to wounded warriors traveling between the Warrior Transition Battalion barracks and the Womack Army Medical Center. RE2 will design the ARIBO Assistive Arm (A3), a low-risk, user-friendly manipulator system intended to quickly transfer patients from a wheelchair onto the ARIBO vehicle and back to a wheelchair at the destination. The goal of this SBIR program will be to provide patients with severely reduced mobility with a reliable transportation option to travel to doctor’s appointments, offices, or anywhere else on base that is supported by the ARIBO transport system.
“We are honored to apply our robotic manipulation expertise to help wounded warriors gain access to the ARIBO automated transportation system at Fort Bragg,” stated Jorgen Pedersen, president and CEO of RE2 Robotics. “This program is about more than developing cutting edge assistive manipulation technology. It is about empowering our service men and women who have suffered severe mobility limitations to regain a degree of transportation independence. This is one of the main reasons why RE2 Robotics is in business – to develop technologies that improve quality of life.”