LANdroids: Expand Your Wireless Network Remotely

I had this awesome idea for a movie: Attack of the LANdroids. Doesn’t that sound cool? LANdroids. Just say it that word, and you’ll be impressed: LANdroids. In case you’re wondering what a LANdroid is, it’s a little mobile robot that moves around on little tank treads with protruding antennae. I picture the scenes where there is an army of these little guys marching like that old William Shatner flick, Kingdom of the Spiders. Of course, you can really easily beat an army of advancing mini-creatures. Just run them over with a steam roller.

Well, in case you haven’t figured it out yet, the LANdroid is an actual device. It was crafted by DARPA for use by the United States Army. It may not be something you would use as a weapon. After all, this isn’t the old Tom Selleck sci-fi flick Runaway where these little mini-robots are targeted to kill certain people by injecting acid in the neck. No, these are not weapons, but wireless signal boosters. What you can do with LANdroids is move these little critters into enemy territory, like occupied places of Iraq or Afghanistan. Especially in places where there are many buildings blocking your wireless signal.

Even though I alluded to these LANdroids being like spiders, they work together like army ants. What they do is go into an area and create a wireless web. Now soldiers can communicate via cell phone and send important emails without having to find a good access point. I suppose you could use them for surfing the net and taking care of business, but I suppose that seems like a waste.

One great feature of these LANdroids is that if one is taken out, the other LANdroids will adjust automatically to take the fallen LANdroid’s place. Now that is teamwork and self-sacrifice that is equivalent to pawns on a chess board.

The other stats I have on them are also pretty impressive. The LANdroids can move at 1 meter per second. That may not be too fast, but in the RC world, that’s pretty good. However, the LANdroids are not powered by a rechargeable battery, but they use disposable batteries. These batteries are good for about seven to fourteen days of usage. They are also good for cost, as they only go for $100 a pop.

So far, there hasn’t been any put out yet. In fact, it looks like it is still in the proposal stage. However, I can think of a lot of personal uses for these guys that do not involve military operation.