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The robot shown in the picture is the Gladiator Concept Validation Model, or CVM. This vehicle was the first of three vehicles developed for the Marine Corp starting in 2002. The "Tracked CVM" was a diesel-hydraulic powertrain. There were two other vehicles developed under the CVM program. Both were six wheeled vehicles that used a diesel-electric powertrain. All vehicles could be operated up to 2000 meters with line of sight and sported three weapon options: the M240 machine gun, M249 machine gun, and a 9mm Uzi. They also hade the LVOSS obsurant system and APOBS breaching system. They also fired the FN303 less lethal weapon. The CVM UGVs had enough ground tractive force to pull a HMMWV. They were able to climb and decend slopes up to 100% (45 degrees) and were capable of crushing an enemy if need be. They weighted about 2000 lbs. and were armored to withstand multiple hits from a 7.62x39mm round point blank. These were some tough vehicles. All three vehicle were rolled over multiple times during the Marine Corp evaluation and they got right back up and drove off. The tracked vehicle shown above was even driven into 3 feet of water at one point. Due to the highly modular designs of the CVM vehicles the tracked vehicle was up and running again within a day. The CVM program ran up until about 2006 when the Marine Corp selected Carnagie-Mellon to produce their version of the Gladiator. The project is currently on hold until other priorities are fulfilled in the Marine Corp. If you would like to know more about the Gladiator CVM program, please feel free to email me at brad@airguns.net.