The US Army is putting robots destined for the scrap heap to good use, by sending them into potentially contaminated areas, so soldiers don’t need to risk their lives.

The robot, the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Unmanned Ground Vehicle, or CUGV (part of the CBRN Unmanned Ground Reconnaissance Concept), was previously used with explosive ordnance disposal units around the Army, but more current models have made them redundant. Now the CUGV is being used to detect ammonia, chlorine, carbon monoxide, oxygen levels, lower explosive limits, volatile organic compounds, gamma radiation rate and dose rate, temperature and humidity. An onboard lightweight chemical detector means the device will also detect nerve and blister agents.

In addition to just finding contaminated areas and deciphering the level of danger, the robot can also mark the areas for further sampling and investigation or decontamination.

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Rubbish is being converted into energy by the US Army through the Tactical Garbage to Energy Refinery (TGER) at Camp Victory in Iraq.

Seeing an opportunity to use biotechnology to solve a real Army problem set Dr James Valdes, scientific advisor for biotechnology with the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, and his team on the path toward creating a machine that could provide the energy to power the generators and stoves that make up about half of the fuel consumption at most forward operating bases.

Valdes explained: “We’ve got a lot of garbage at various operating bases, and it’s got to go someplace. So our logic was that at a forward operating base, could we use the garbage to make fuel and thereby get rid of the garbage and help to keep the convoys off the streets? And that’s how TGER got started.”

TGER is small enough to fit into a CONEX container, but powerful enough to power a standard 60-kilowatt generator. TGER works by turning the solid rubbish into fuel pellets which are fed into a synthetic gas composed of simple hydrocarbons that resembles low-grade propane. TGER processes the liquid and food waste into a hydrous ethanol which is blended with the syngas to create useable energy.

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