NREC collaborated with Automatika, Inc. (AI) to develop Dragon Runner, an ultra-rugged, portable, lightweight reconnaissance robot for use by the U.S. Marine Corps in Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) for urban reconnaissance and sentry missions.

Dragon Runner represents the state-of-the-art in rugged ultra-compact, ultra-portable mission-capable mobile robotics platform for use with wireless remote control.

The use of small-scale hand controllers and custom mission backpack, powered through military batteries, make this system ideal for use in areas too dangerous or inaccessible for Marines.

Dragon Runner has been successfully commercialized by Qinetiq North America.