Fire Ant

Fire Ant was the first Sandia robot capable of using an autonomous stand-off mine to destroy an enemy's armor. The mine was a Sandia designed Explosively Formed Projectile (EFP). The Fire Ant robot was based on the Dixie design. Video motion detection was used for target acquisition. Once Fire Ant was teleoperated to a strategic position that overlooked a road, the operator aimed the weapon and set up the areas of sensitivity for the video tracking software. A teleoperated tank was sent down the road. As it moved into the detection zone it was detected by Fire Ant, the weapon was armed and the EFP was autonomously fired. Because of the EFP's size and design the FireAnt is destroyed after firing the projectile.