New robots help with ammunition recovery at Army testing site in Yuma

YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) — The Yuma Proving Ground in southeastern Arizona is one of the biggest Army testing sites in the world.

Their ammunition recovery team has one of the most dangerous jobs on base and they recently purchased new robots to help recover spent ammunition.

The first robot is a Kobra 725 robot that weighs 560 pounds and can pick up about 330 pounds.

The second is a Pacbot 525 robot. Both can be controlled with a tablet used as a remote control.

They’re fully equipped with cameras that are used to locate and recover test munitions at YPG.

They can pick up a test mine and take it to a place where it can be disposed of safely.

The robots have recovered more than 200 test items.

“They will fire the item that they are testing. If it has a failure, we will recover it pretty much during that week that they fired it. We will take it back, we’ll take it apart so they can figure out why that system didn’t work,” said Mark Aimeroth, ammunition recovery supervisor.

Simeroth is a combat veteran. He worked for the U.S. Army’s explosive ordnance disposal bomb squad for 22 years.

He said the military uses robots like these overseas to get rid of explosive devices.

“Definitely these robots were lifesavers in the field,” he said.

The Kobra and Pacbot are the latest robot models and are the same ones used in combat today.

Simeroth said the robots are very useful and can be used for more than ammunition recovery.

“The Kobra, one of the requirements for it being such a big machine was so it could be used in an emergency situation to recover a person,” he said.

Simeroth said working with these robots has been a game changer. Their capabilities and high-definition imagery really set them apart from previous robots.

Simeroth said the robots can be controlled from a mile away, giving his team plenty of space to stay clear of explosive threats and keep running tests efficiently.

“The safety factor increased with the use of robotics,” he said.

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