January 2, 2012: The Indian Army has received six Daksh bomb disposal robots and has another 14 on order. Each one costs $180,000. Designed and built in India, Daksh weighs 380 kg (836 pounds) and is the size of a golf cart. Using six wheels, Daksh can climb stairs and use an extendable arm to lift up to 100 kg (220 pounds). The Daksh also carries cameras, including on the extendable arm. The arm can also carry a shotgun to blast locked doors open, or an X-Ray device to look within a vehicle or enclosure to see if there is a bomb within. Daksh can be operated up to 500 meters from the operator.
Development work on Daksh began in 2003 and was completed in 2009. American bomb disposal vehicles tend to be a lot smaller (under 50 kg) and cheaper, and represent a different approach to designing and using these devices to deal with bombs. Daksh is larger, like much older bomb disposal robots, but uses the more effective technology of more current (and smaller) models.
