The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (CCDC) has issued a two-year extension to its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Squishy Robotics. The renewed agreement will continue through July 2024 and will maintain its focus of testing high-altitude airdrops of our tensegrity robots.
Squishy Robotics and CCDC began working under a CRADA in Summer 2019. Since then, Squishy Robotics has worked with the CCDC SC team out of Natick, Massachusetts to complete multiple drop tests from airplanes over the Sonoran Desert in Arizona.
“Our team has worked closely with Army civilian engineers during these tests, which usually occur over multiple days, two to three times a year,” explained Lead Mechatronics Engineer Douglas Hutchings. “After three years of this testing activity, I think that this contract extension indicates that the Army has confidence in Squishy Robotics’ technology and wants to make sure that this relationship continues so that further collaboration is readily achievable.”
These CRADA-run test flights, which commonly reach altitudes of at least 1,000 feet, have repeatedly shown that our robots can withstand the impact of the high-altitude airdrops and satisfactorily protect their sensitive sensor-and-camera payloads.