Robot hospital: Where IDF treats droids wounded in the line of fire

In Warrant Officer Ilanit Finkelstein's workshop, a black robot that gave up the ghost during an operation in the West Bank has been lying on the table for several weeks. The electrical short circuit from which it suffers was particularly deadly, and the suitcase from which soldiers can give it orders was burned. Finkelstein, who is in charge of the electronics department at the Julis base, finds it difficult to recall a robot that came to her in such bad shape, at least recently.

"We are waiting for replacements parts to come from the manufacturer in the United States," she says. "We will do a few experimental activities with it in laboratory conditions and afterward we will hand it over to the unit that has to operate it."

The Israel Defense Forces robot fleet now numbers several dozen, which are used by IDF units in the West Bank and the Gaza area. Their main aim is to minimize the chances of soldiers getting hurt in combing buildings and tunnels that could be booby-trapped. The robots, which are less than a meter tall, know how to climb staircases quickly, photograph what is standing in front of them and transmit the live picture to a distant command position. Given an order from afar, they are also capable of opening fire on terrorists and suspicious objects.

A robot that is wounded in action is brought to the "robot hospital" - a workshop of the armaments unit of the Central Command (Regional Armaments Unit 650), which is located at the Julis base in Lachish. During an average week about three robots that have been damaged in the line of duty are brought in. Only three soldiers, in the career army, have the know-how and credentials to repair the robots.

The repairs are not carried out only at the workshop. "Sometimes we are sent into the field in order to solve problems that arise in the functioning of the robots during the course of operational actions," says Finkelstein. "We don't have the time to linger over the treatment of hitches because the robots are very essential for operational action, and we definitely are saving human lives."

The creative solutions that the workshop people have been able to come up with for repairing robots have saved about NIS 50 million for the defense establishment. "Before we order an important part for a robot, we sit and think what we can do in order to avoid the huge expenses," relates another member of the robotics team at Unit 650, Warrant Officer Yitzhak Yahana. "We don't have any professional literature on the subject. We have accumulated all the knowledge we have from experience in the field and experience of hitches that have occurred. And we are constantly improving our ability to solve problems and decreasing the amount of time until the robots are once again fully fit."