Can game console technology find roadside bombs

Kennedy said that many of the vehicles the military is currently using to combat IEDs as well as more traditional landmines depend on being pretty close to the target.

"And in some cases, they actually have to get in contact with it," he said. "If this turns out to be a better solution than we have now, it's hard to imagine that we won't eventually be using this."

But to get haptic control up and running, Gilbert said, the communication between the user and the remote UGV has to become instantaneous. To achieve accurate haptic control, he said, requires a closed loop rate of 1000 Hz -- which means the machine and the user must be able to communicate with input and output information at a minimum of 1000 times a second.

"If there's a time delay between what the robot is experiencing and what the person who's controlling it is experiencing the reaction is going to be late and you won't be able to operate the vehicle properly," Gilbert said. "We're not only receiving data from the robot, we're also sending signals to it. Because of this, that whole loop has to be as fast as possible."

One of the biggest challenges facing Quanser centers on the use of this haptic loop over the dedicated wireless network.