Four years ago, a small Israeli bot-maker unveiled a softball-shaped spy designed to let troops snoop on a room, before they had to bust down the door. Tech writers went nuts over the ODF Optronics' "EyeBall R1." But did the ball-bot live up to its hype?
The EyeBall is a small, inexpensive robot equipped with day and night cameras and a mic, meant to be tossed into a room, so the thrower can look and listen without being seen. A platoon kit of three of the bots, along with a wireless monitor and handheld controller, costs around $5,000. Not surprisingly, the geeks of the press corps got all hot and bothered, when it debuted in 2005. Information Week called it the "stuff of sci-fi action flicks," requiring just the "skill of a softball pitcher." EyeBall is one of several "throw-able" bots to come out in recent years.
So how has the machine performed, in the real world? Jason Reich, who writes for my personal blog War Is Boring, dropped in at an ODF facility a couple weeks ago to find out. "EyeBalls get daily operational use" in the Israel Defense Forces, Reich tells me. But not everyone in the IDF is thrilled with the device. Reich asked an Israeli special forces veteran what he thought of the ball-shaped robot spy.
"While the technical execution is flawless, the concept is not," Reich quotes his source saying. "Oftentimes, the EyeBall, when thrown, lands behind a piece of furniture in the room, like a couch or a bed, and can't see anything. In addition, the very act of throwing something into a room before sweeping it erases any tactical surprise."
"Why not just throw a flash-bang [grenade], instead?" the source asked.
Reich ran these criticisms past ODF exec Yosi Wolf. Wolf explained that the EyeBall is not a "complete solution," rather "part of a package," Reich says. ODF offers a wide range of affordable robots, big and small, for blanketing an area with camera and listening devices. With a combination of bots, "you can have a platoon operating in a village with hundreds of sensors per square kilometer," Wolf said.
But the SF vet's lackluster opinion of EyeBall, while just one man's view, seems to underscore recent comments by U.S. Marine Corps General James Mattis, head of Joint Forces Command. "We’re going to have to deal on human levels with human beings" in future "hybrid" conflicts, Mattis said, "and not think that technology or tactics by targetry will solve war.” The best solution to most military problems, Mattis added, is lots of "high-performing small units" -- human troops on the ground.
[PHOTO: Defense Update**]
