No longer will Marines in the field have to deal with as many as five different controllers for remote unmanned vehicles. The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab has developed a standardized Tactical Robotic Controller, which will operate all unmanned systems in the inventory. "We broke it down [so that] anybody who has any robot anywhere can come give us their data package, we can load it into this common controller and it can control the aircraft," said Gunnery Sgt. Steven C. Sullivan, a project officer with the ground control element at Quantico Marine Corps Base, Va. The new controller closely resembles joysticks found in Xbox, Gameboy, iPhone, and other commonly used game systems. Weighing in at about eight pounds, the device provides a screen with up to four different display angles of a robotic unit under its control. It can be used on 16 or 17 different devices.
