Alion forms robotic venture

Alion Science & Technology has formed a joint venture with an Irish robotics firm to help military and other government customers use them more effectively.

Alion and Reamda Ltd have created Realion to bring together Alion’s engineering skills with Reamda’s robotic capabilities. Reamda primarily makes ground-based remote controlled robots.

While military, police and other agencies have used robots for years, “many of these robots, while essential, have proven to be expensive and to have long-term reliability issues,” Alion said in a release.

The services Realion will provide include engineering, integration, communications platform development, program management, operations and logistics, and rapid prototyping.

“While no one disputes the usefulness of military robots, the [Defense Department] has traditionally bought many more than they need, because they expect to see a lot of breakdowns in the field,” said Doug King, program manager for Realion Robotics. “So the cost of ownership can be very high”