Delivering food through conflict zones, minefields and floods can put humanitarian workers at mortal risk.
Now, technology developed to control rovers on distant planets is being adapted to take aid workers out of some of the world’s most dangerous aid missions.
Project AHEAD, a collaboration between the World Food Programme, Germany’s aerospace research centre DLR, the Red Cross and technology partners, is developing remotely operated vehicles capable of carrying supplies through areas considered too dangerous or difficult for conventional delivery trucks.
Footage from a DLR test site in Germany shows a SHERP all-terrain vehicle wading into open water and climbing over rough ground.
Sensors scan the terrain ahead while an operator controls the vehicle remotely, allowing it to travel without anyone sitting behind the wheel.
