Leveraging the unique robotic capabilities and facilities at ERDC’s Construction Engineering Research Lab, engineers are working on a basic research project aimed at lightening Soldier loads and reducing the amount of personnel and machinery needed for downrange missions.

The project, which goes by the acronym Co3MaNDR, uses a series of cabledriven robots that work together to reduce the lifting burden on frontline military personnel, ultimately allowing distributed robotic systems to conduct complex military and maintenance efforts under the control of a single operator.