iRobot to develop communications robot for military

iRobot Corp. of Burlington said today it will develop new portable communications relay robots for the Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

The robots will be developed under DARPA's LANdroids program. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

According to iRobot, the goal of the DARPA LANdroids program is to develop technologies that will enable US troops operating in dense urban environments to rapidly deploy and maintain a communications infrastructure.

IRobot makes PackBots, robots designed to patrol battlefields as well as household robots such as the Roomba, which can perform cleaning tasks such as vacuuming.
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)