Freedom’s other unmanned systems
February 16th, 2010 | Life at Sea Science and technology The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
From left, CS3 Scooba Stevens, Chief Miles O'Brien and ITSN Unger, part of the Freedom's fleet of floor-cleaning robots // Philip Ewing / Staff
ABOARD THE FREEDOM — Yeah, yeah, we all know about the unmanned surface vessel that will troll its sonar for enemy submarines, or the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter — what unmanned systems made the biggest splash with the reporters who visited this ship today? Its cleaning-bots.
To help keep the passageways tidy and help out its comparatively small, very busy crew, Freedom has a squadron of floor-vacuuming and floor-cleaning robots, which roam the ship sucking up dust and generally keeping the decks in good military order.
“We’ve got a whole herd — a whole fleet, if you will — of Roombas,” said Lt. Ed Early, the Freedom’s spokesman.
And if that wasn’t blog-nip enough for you, each clean-bot has a name, bestowed by the crew. The three we saw today were Chief Miles O’Brien, ITSN Unger and CS3 Scooba Stevens — that’s one of the Scooba floor-washing bots. Their namesakes are who you think they are: The legendary transporter chief aboard the Starship Enterprise; the germophobic half of the Odd Couple; and the memorable underwater action hero from the otherwise forgettable Adam Sandler vehicle “Big Daddy.”
The use of a Roomba/Scooba squadron was developed by Cmdr. Curt Renshaw of the littoral combat ship Independence, Early said, and its cousin-crews on the Freedom eagerly adopted the concept.
“This doesn’t mean we don’t sweep the floors — we do — but this just gives us an extra hand,” Early said.
Comments
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