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The Adventure Of The Robotic Emm Dee

or Take Two Gigabytes And IM Me In The Morning.

The "autodoc" has long been a staple of science fiction, with Larry Niven being a leader in using the plot device effectively in his stories. But for any number of reasons including technology limitations, malpractice legal liability issues, and sheer human cussedness, real medical robots have been slow to arrive when compared to the pace of robotization in other fields.

But now that is finally changing. We are still not to the point of an AAMD (Autonomous Artificial Medical Doctor) but we are certainly heading in that direction. The two systems we want to look at in this post are the Da Vinci Surgical Robot and the SRI M7 Surgical Robot.

The Da Vinci system is in use in hospitals in England and Canada today, and is licensed by the FDA for use in the United States as well. Like the M7, Da Vinci is a telepresence robot rather than an autonomous one; it is completely controlled by a human surgeon and has no artificial intelligence in use at this point. This might bring up the question, "Why bother?" and indeed critics of these sorts of systems do just that. But as noted in both this article and this one, robot surgeons actually have a major impact on the amount of insult (which is doctor-speak for cutting you up like mutton) the patient has to suffer to obtain the needed medical results:

The operator’s finger movements are communicated to the robot via loops of Velcro wrapped around the thumb and forefinger. Although the mechanical movements are slower than a human’s, the machine compensates for any tremor, so they are delivered with rock-steady precision. (Boldface mine.)

...

The smaller, more precise incisions reduce bleeding and shorten recovery times. The robot may also help to avoid cutting nerves and muscle that control the bladder and erections. Incontinence and impotence are common side-effects of prostate surgery. (Boldface mine.)

Anything that lessens the chance of impotence is right there at the top of my list, goal-wise, if I have to get my little p-buddy chopped out, let me tell you! And this doesn't even begin to address surgical mistakes, lost surgical tools, and a host of other issues that this sort of mechanical intermediary can reduce or even eliminate completely. (Hat tip to Engadget for the original link.)

The major limitation of the Da Vinci system is that it is not designed for any sort of remote operation beyond a few feet. SRI International's M7 Surgical Robot system attempts to move beyond that limitation, and in so doing is attracting major funding from both DARPA and NASA in the United States. (Curiously enough, SRI actually founded and spun off the Intuitive Systems, Inc. company that markets Da Vinci. Small world, eh?) The first application they are developing is somewhat in the planning stage, but its a whopper; an autonomous medical wound triage and supportive treatment unit called a Trauma Pod, funded by DARPA. From the press release, we learn these exciting details:

Imagine an automated medical treatment system that does not require onsite medical personnel on the front lines of battle, and is ready to receive, assess, and stabilize wounded soldiers during the critical hours following injury. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Defense Sciences Office (DSO) has taken a significant step toward that goal by awarding an SRI International-led multi-organization team a $12 million, two-year contract to develop such a revolutionary system. The groundbreaking program is an important step toward ensuring a future generation of battlefield-based unmanned medical treatment systems, or "trauma pods," to stabilize injured soldiers within minutes after a battlefield trauma and administer life-saving medical and surgical care prior to evacuation and during transport.

The first phase of the program is an effort to develop robotic technology to perform a totally unmanned surgical procedure within a fixed facility. When fully developed, the Trauma Pod will not require human medical personnel on-site to conduct the surgery, and will be small enough to be carried by a medical ground or air vehicle. A human surgeon will conduct all the required surgical procedures from a remote location using a system of surgical manipulators. The system's actions are then communicated wirelessly to the surgery site. Automated robotic systems will provide necessary support to the surgeon to conduct all phases of the operation.

That is getting in the direction of an Autodoc as far as I'm concerned, for any money you want to put down. While the system is some years from being fielded, you can bet that any company that can make the Da Vinci work will solve the issues around this capability as well.

There is a more immediate product undergoing testing as well in the M7 line as well, namely the Extreme Environment Telerobotic Surgery system, used in a marvelously named NEEMO technology demonstration last year. Again from the SRI press release we learn:

The 18-day mission, which began on April 3 and ended today, marks the first time in history an entire robotic surgical system was transported to an extreme environment and manipulated successfully from afar. The mission was defined by Dr. Mehran Anvari, a surgeon and professor in the Centre for Minimal Access Surgery and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The mission was funded by TATRC under the terms of a cooperative agreement and enabled by SRI’s robotic surgical system.

The SRI robotic surgical system is designed to be small enough for compact storage and easy assembly should an astronaut require emergency surgery while in space. SRI’s robotic surgical interface was controlled by Dr. Anvari in Canada while the surgical robot was aboard the Aquarius laboratory, approximately 1,500 miles away in Florida. From the control console, Dr. Anvari performed the complex surgical task of vascular suturing, or stitching up a vein.

The medical procedures simulated may one day be used to respond to emergencies on the International Space Station, the moon, or Mars. The technology is also applicable in remote regions on earth where there is limited medical care.

Major goals of the NEEMO 9 mission were to:

• evaluate the use of telerobotics in performing emergency diagnostic, surgical and interventional therapies in a confined and extreme environment (as is found in space flight)
• investigate open questions and operational concepts that will enable NASA to return humans to the moon as part of the President's Vision for Space Exploration.

"Previous research has shown that surgeons can adapt to latencies of 200 - 500ms," said Mark Reagan, NEEMO 9 Mission Director, NASA. "However, common knowledge dictates that time delays greater than 500 ms (half a second) would make such a task impossible. This mission successfully demonstrated a two-second time delay“ equivalent to the time it would take for the signal to travel to the Moon. This truly was a noteworthy scientific achievement."

(The picture to the right can be clicked to see a larger version.) It is really hard to overstate the importance of this achievement. One of the major issues for a manned mission to Mars has been the problem of a life-threatening emergency like a burst appendix happening on board. No rescue mission would be possible, and there is no current possibility of including even a small hospital capability in any remotely launchable mission with current technology and funding. The NEEMO demonstration shows that it could be possible to have a system aboard a deep space mission that could handle remote surgery (compensating for the lightspeed delay as noted above) for non-catastrophic presentations.

But it gets better! Now SRI is planning to test out the NEEMO demonstrator aboard NASA's Vomit Comet to see how it can perform in microgravity environments. From Gizmodo we learn:

Researchers from SRI International and the University of Cincinnati are set to pioneer in-flight robotic surgery, in a simulated zero gravity environment. The planned flight will take place this month and will be abroad a NASA C-9 aircraft at 34, 000 feet.

The researchers hope to investigate the precision and speed of human and RC robotic surgeons, under various conditions. One of the planned tests will involve creating an incision and then re-stitching, to allow an evaluation between human and robot performance.

(Gizmodo selflessly offered up one of their interns as the test subject, but we suspect an air force officer will get that honor instead.)

So whether it is here at home or up in the sky, a robotic Emm Dee is going to be treating you sooner than you think. I suspect Teh Robot still will have a lousy bedside manner, but Talos says that's just me. Like he'd know. (Images courtesy of Wikipedia, SRI Incorporated, DARPA and Intuitive Systems, Inc.)

The Adventure Of The Robotic Ships And Silicon Men

The United States and British Navies have seen the future of naval warfare. And people aren't in it. Instead, they are envisioning an entire surface fleet with autonomous capabilities and massive armaments filling all that space where currently we have to keep people, food, clothing, medical supplies, all those useless things that get in the way of the real mission, which is to cross the oceans, meet strange people, sink their ships, shoot down their aircraft and missiles, and do awful things to their territory.

It started out small, as these things usually do. When UAV procurement began to ramp up in the various services of the United State military, the Navy decided to try and get a miniature helicopter that could take off and land from an aircraft carrier. The FireScout from NorthrupGrumman emerged from the Procurement Hell as the lead contractor to deliver the vehicle. However, as is usually the case in such matters, the engineers at NG were unable to deliver on the promises the management and salesmen made, and the Navy decided it was pouring money down a robot-hole and canceled the project. And as per usual in the Procurement Pavanne, NG moved the project to the Marines and finally the Army, and managed to get the thing working and even operational. (In fact, the device is so successful the Congress has mandated its early deployment.) And so the Navy got interested again, accepting delivery of nine of the little beasts. (Hat tip to Wired.com's Danger Room blog for the original link.)

And then Government Economics kicked in. (For those of you unfamiliar with this aspect of economic theory, it can be best summed up as "Why have only one when you can have a hundred for the price of two hundred?") And suddenly every single aspect of Teh Navy had to have a robotic vision, at least on paper. (Warning: PDF link.) (Click the image for a larger but no less incomprehensible version.)

If our roboticists were incompetent that's all it would be, but now it looks like they can deliver on all those promises after all! (Click the picture to the left for a much larger version of the lovely little creature.) Let's have a look at what the Sea Dogs are planning, robot-wise, starting with BAE's UXV "drone hive" destroyer/drone aircraft carrier concept (courtesy of its press release):

The design provides a cost-effective solution to the evolving challenges facing the modern navy. Features will include:

• Flexible and efficient twin flight decks
• Variable ski jump
• Rotary aviation facilities
• Below-deck hangar
• Smart munitions

The weapons are a future development of the Type 45 combat suite. With the UXV support capability, performing multiple roles combined with an easily adaptable design, which moves the concept of stealth to the next level.

Propulsion options include full integrated electrical propulsion with twin propeller shafts/motors supplied by gas turbine and diesel alternators. Alternatively, cruising power can be supplied by two shafts/motors and diesel alternators with boost power from one gas turbine driving two water jets.

The concept brings together naval technologies developed through collaboration with partners such as Rolls Royce and across BAE Systems business units, as part of a programme of continuous improvement.

It is important to realize that the Type 45 "HMS Daring Class" destroyer is already built and is undergoing sea trials right now. While the British government hasn't committed to buying one of these monsters, BAE would not be spending the time and money to spec one out if they didn't have good reason to think it would sell. (The link above notes that these babies are also configured to maintain, launch and retrieve UUV (Unmanned Underwater Vehicle) and USV (Unmanned Surface Vehicle) drones as well.) Please note that the capabilities of the drone helicopters envisioned for this ship are substantially the same as that of the now-functioning FireScout noted above, only scaled up at bit. And the UUV's and USV's envisioned, well gee, they are just like those planned by that nice United States Naval Robot War Plan linked to above! What a coincidence!

Danger Room comes through for us again with the details. Let's have a look at the four types of drones envisioned by the WSNRWP (my acronym):

The three-meter long "X-Class" machines would be for "low-end" snooping and reconnaissance; like a robotic jet ski, with a camera attached.


The "Harbor Class" would be based on the Navy's seven meter long rigid-hulled inflatable boats, or RIBs. These unmanned Zodiacs would be used for dropping mine countermeasures, and fending off boat-borne bad guys with a mix of "lethal and non-lethal armament."

The "Snorkeler Class" is a stealthy, seven-meter submersible that would stay in the water for up to a day at a time, tow ing mine- and sub-finding-gear -- and maybe even carrying a torpedo or two.

Lastly, there's the "Fleet Class," capable of staying in the water for 48 hours straight, and reaching speeds of up to 35 knots. The eleven-meter long USV would be used to do everything from carrying commandos to shore, jamming enemy communications, neutralizing mines, and delivering a "Harbor Class" drone. Naturally, it would carry its own guns and torpedoes, too, so it could conduct 'high end' surface warfare missions."

Wow! If you actually grit your teeth and read the planning document PDF above, you'll see that the U.S. Navy is not wasting money with this program; they actually intend to field these puppies ASAP. And while the all-robot fleet I used as my hook at the lede isn't on the table yet, don't kid yourself. As noted in this post, autonomous ships are being developed right now; once they get good enough, you can look to have an entire destroyer or even a drone-carrier manned by a skeleton crew of less than a hundred (these ships carry many thousands of crew right now). For my money, that's an all robot Navy. And its on its way, at flank speed. (Images courtesy of Wikipedia, NorthropGrumman, BAE and the United States Navy.)

(Oh, and if you were thinking that maybe logistics will still require wetware, try this baby out. We're being outsourced, guys, to silicon.)

The Adventure Of The Treaded Robotic Overlords

or Don't Tread On Me Or I'll Tread On You!

Okay, cheesy puns I'll admit. But the use of treaded robots is central to allowing them to work in areas where legs just won't make it, like constricted spaces in collapsed buildings or urban warfare zones. In some cases, even mouse holes are big enough to let these guys get to work! Let's have a quick look at two of the (relatively) latest entries in the treaded robot stable.

First we have (from 2004 actually) the Sandia National Laboratory's Mini-Bots! Adorable, aren't they? Here's the skinny from the project's web site:

At 1/4 cubic inch and weighing less than an ounce, it is possibly the smallest autonomous untethered robot ever created. Powered by three watch batteries, it rides on track wheels and consists of an 8K ROM processor, temperature sensor, and two motors that drive the wheels. Enhancements being considered include a miniature camera, microphone, communication device, and chemical micro-sensor.

“This could be the robot of the future,” says Ed Heller, one of the project’s researchers. “It may eventually be capable of performing difficult tasks that are done with much larger robots today — such as locating and disabling land mines or detecting chemical and biological weapons.”

He says it could, for example, scramble through pipes or prowl around buildings looking for chemical plumes or human movement. The robots may be capable of relaying information to a manned station and communicating with each other. They will be able to work together in swarms, like insects. The miniature robots will be able to go into locations too small for their larger relatives.

The mini-robot has already maneuvered its way through a field of dimes and nickels and travels at about 20 inches a minute. It can sit easily on a nickel.

Unfortunately work on these neat items seems to be languishing, due to lack of funding no doubt. Write your congressman, the mini-bots need your support! (Maybe we could give them the vote, sort of a robot suffrage kind of deal...) (Hat tip to Boing Boing for the original link(s).)

And then we have the Negotiator, a new contender from RobotFx. It is a cheaper and better alternative to the iRobot's treaded robot, and we glean the following tidbits from the military's press release on their purchase of the new robots:

“The unmanned ground vehicle contract we signed today will have far-reaching effects,” Col. James Braden, Robotic Systems Joint Project Office project manager said in a written statement. “These systems will help protect our Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, and Airmen by providing a much needed reconnaissancetool that allows our service members to gather information on suspicious objects while remaining at a distance. We're putting technology in harm’s way and not our service members.”

Robotic FX will deliver the Negotiator tactical robot, a 45-pound bomb detector with infrared cameras used by hundreds of state, local and federal law enforcement agencies around the U.S. The initial delivery order will be for 101 Robotic FX Negotiators, marking their first use with the U.S. military on the battlefield.

This sort of robot unfortunately tends to be viewed as expendable, so the cost factor is a major element in its adoption, and what isn't mentioned in the PR is that the Negotiator is substantially cheaper than the iRobot device provided for the same purpose. (Note that this has a human element as well, as soldiers get attached to these devices for some reason. Dr. Frankenstein, line one.) The cost factor is apparently resulting from lack of patent royalties being paid or some such issue, resulting in iRobot suing RobotFx with all sorts of tabloid-type allegations flying around. Who said robots were cold and emotionless? (Hat tip to Danger Room for the original link.) (Images courtesy of Sandia Labs and RobotFx.)

The Adventure Of The Swimming, Water-Walking, and Skating Robots, Oh My!

Lewis Carroll never had it like this. All he had were lions, tigers and bears!

The term used for the kind of robots we are discussing here is biomimetic, or "life-imitating". Our first robot of interest is the prototype "water-running" (walking really doesn't apply because speed is one of the main ways the robot and its animal counterpart the Basilisk Lizard stays afloat!) robot from Dr. Stephen Foster and his team at Carnegie Mellon University. From his paper on the subject we learn: (warning: PDF link)

The knowledge gained by this work will help expand the limits of legged robot locomotion. A legged robot capable of walking across land and water quite literally has the entire world open to it. Further work in this field can lead to completely amphibious bipedal or quadrupedal motion.

This, if anything, is an understatement. If the technology can be made usable at human level weight classes, vehicles or even wearable exoskeletons could be developed that would allow "walking on water" to leave the confines of myth and religion and become a viable military and Search and Rescue capability. And this is only one of a whole group of such ambitions projects now well under way at the NanoRobotics Lab at CMU.

In a similar vein, researchers at the Hirose-Fukushima Robotics Lab in Japan are working on robots which can climb very steep surfaces like spiders and Gecko Lizards. More interestingly, they are examining a combined approach that merges wheeled "skating" and legged "walking" locomotion to achieve the best of both types of movement. From their web site on the "Roller-Walker" project we learn:

At present, there are many studies available about leg-wheel hybrid mobile robots. This is because a walking robot has high terrain adaptability on irregular ground and a wheeled robot takes advantage of moving speed on smooth terrain. In the past, active wheels were often used for wheeled locomotion by such robots. However installation of active wheels restricted a walking machine's ability significantly, because active wheels need actuators, a brake mechanism and a steering mechanism. This equipment is so heavy and bulky that it is not a practical solution for a walking robot which has many degrees of freedom. Our proposed hybrid mobile robot named "Roller-Walker" is a vehicle with a special foot mechanism which changes between feet soles for the walking mode and passive wheels for the rolling mode. Roller-Walker can utilize the installed actuators for walking, so additional weight is very light. The wheeled locomotion is based on the same principle as that of roller-skating. (Grammatical cleanup, boldface and italics mine.)

For an environment like urban Japan, which has a maze of interconnected smooth and rough terrain, a robot with this sort of locomotion could greatly enhance its deployable range. This sort of advanced biomimetics is an example of the way that robotic research is not bound by nature, but can improve upon it in many ways. (Hat tip to Gizmodo and Robots.net for the original links.)

Perhaps the most difficult environment for robots (and humans) is water, especially the oceans of our planet. The roboticists haven't forgotten this; they are focusing on three key areas for their research and actual products in the aquatic venue. The first is simple, but vital: the need to maintain security on inland and coastal waterways where large patrol boats cannot easily go. Enter the Sentry from British defense giant QinetiQ; Sentry is an autonomous surface water vehicle that is designed for remote operation in restricted areas. From the press release we learn:

Combining an advanced stealth design, high-speed performance and the ability to carry multiple payloads, Sentry is the ideal craft for a variety of mission roles including remote unmanned harbour patrol and security, battlefield reconnaissance and damage assessment along with intruder investigation.

Safe and simple to both maintain and operate, the craft’s modular design allows for simple upgrade or payload changes and support for remote control, autonomous and regular operations. Capable of speeds of up to 50 knots and with a proven endurance of around six hours, it has an overall length of 3.5m, a beam of 1.25m and a height above the waterline of just 1.1m. A simple PC-based remote control operations console allows full control of the vehicle and the onboard features from a non visual line of-sight operations location.

The basic payload includes microwave datalink communications and camera with payload options comprising stabilised real-time day / night high resolution cameras, a full lighting rig that meets current maritime navigation standards, a loud-hailer system and a smoke marker launcher. The enhanced RF control enables Sentry to operate at up to 16 nautical miles – radar line-of-sight. There is also an autonomous system control module and autonomous mission planning software option. (Boldface mine.)

The key feature for this unit is the autonomous bit; a "launch and forget" patrol capability is something the maritime security people have been drooling over ever since the first UAV was launched! Definitely not a pool toy, and bad news for terrorists, human traffickers and anyone else wanting to sneak into or out of the U.K. (Hat tip to Gizmodo and Crave for the original links.)

Although the Sentry has some autonomous features, they are clearly restricted by both its coastal and inland waterway role and by limitations on the platform due to its production status. British robotics researchers have been studying the way birds and some oceanic mammals can find their way across the entire ocean, and are starting to use these results in building autonomous ocean-going watercraft. The first competition is being held to show off the results of their work, called Microtransat 2008. We learn these fascinating details from the BBC's article:

On-board sensors and GPS technology help the boats "sail themselves" after courses set by computer.

The unmanned craft will sail from Brittany next year to the Caribbean, a distance of 4,000 miles (6,436km).

The aim of the race is to develop the use of unmanned sailing boats.

Called Microtransat 2008, the challenge was conceived by academics in Aberystwyth and Toulouse, France, and it is thought to be the world's first transatlantic race for such boats.

Complete with small solar panels, they can be programmed to sail the course of a race but must be propelled by just the wind.

As noted, the real goal is the challenge of crossing the Atlantic itself without human guidance. If birds can do it, why can't robots is what Talos and I say! Keep an eye on this one folks, it has the capability to change the way we use the oceans in a huge way (imagine a supertanker that could pilot itself and avoid the human error that causes almost all major oceanic oil spills!) (Hat tip to Engadget for the original link.)

The third venue the robot research community is approaching for autonomous operation is below the seas, the submarine arena. And not in a small way either, because British giant BAE is currently demonstrating a powerful new autonomous vehicle called Talisman. From their web site on the project we find out just how capable this UUV is:

Talisman comprises the vehicle and a remote control console. The vehicle is based on an innovatively-shaped carbon fiber composite hull, equipped with internal carbon fiber composite pressure vessels containing the electronics systems and payload. The hull is fitted with commercial-off-the-shelf vectorable thruster pods, which allow it to maneuver very accurately, hover and turn 360 within its own length. The hull has been designed and manufactured by stealth aircraft technology experts at the BAE Systems military aircraft sites at Warton and Samlesbury, U.K.

Talisman has been designed with an open architecture system, which allows for easy and rapid re-configuration of the mission system software. It pulls though proven technology from previous projects and couples it with advanced mission planning utilities. All mission parameters are pre-settable before launch, for full autonomous operation, with the possibility of operator intervention throughout the mission. Communications to and from the vehicle are via RF or Iridium SatCom (while the vehicle is surfaced) and via acoustic communications systems (when vehicle is underwater).

Talisman carries both integrated and variable payloads. As standard the vehicle is equipped with a suite of environmental sensors. Other payloads are mission or role specific and can include sonar systems and other UUVs such as Archerfish.

Wired.com's Danger Room blog has much more, including the fact that this baby can swim against the current:

BAE’s Talisman aims to change all that, with a bigger, tougher and more flexible robot based on racecar technology and intended primarily for detecting and destroying underwater mines.

“Existing UUVs have the capability to detect mines but have to go back to the ship and download their information so the ship can see what the UUV sees,” Scott says. Talisman just surfaces, sends out a radio signal and waits for a reply. “Talisman can also relay data to the ship by way of a buoy.”

“Existing UUVs are mostly single-mission,” Scott continues. “Talisman can do mine warfare; Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; it can be configured for Electronic Warfare, for the littorals and for Anti-Submarine Warfare — with the proper sonar and torpedoes. You could put in a navigation system for river navigation.”

Talisman looks like a sleek window- and wheel-less compact car — and in fact is built from the same materials as modern racecars. It has four little jets on the bottom and a weapons bay for carrying torpedoes, smaller UUVs or charges for destroying mines. The sleek construction of the current model is an improvement over the earliest Talisman prototype (pictured), which was blockier and heavier. Besides being slippier, Scott says Talisman has more horsepower than most UUVs and can make headway against a five-knot current.

In the modern asymmetric warfare environment, mining of commercial waterways is a major systempunkt exploited by opposition groups seeking to damage the world economy, not in the least because until now mine-clearing has been the least successful and most hazardous duty in maritime security operations. The Talisman has the potential to change all that in a hurry, removing a powerful threat from the destabilization options of the modern insurgency movements.

So regardless of whether they are walking on water, roller skating on the sidewalk, or patrolling, sailing or swimming under the oceans, robots today share one common feature: they are rapidly defining the future of our society and its capabilities. Think of the changes in the last 20 years with personal computers and the Internet. Now square that level of change with the introduction of ubiquitous robotics and you have a glimpse of the world of 2030! (Images courtesy of BBC News and the various companies and research laboratories named in the post.)

NB: And now for something completely different! A man with three.....alright, it's a robot with three legs that actually walks!

The Adventure Of The Robotic Quadrupeds

Most people, when they think of a robot, envision a humanoid one. However, human bipedal locomotion is a latecomer to the field of self-motivation; the quadrupeds have been around since forever. And now a company called Boston Dynamics is fielding not one but two robots which use quadrapedal locomotion: Little Dog and Big Dog. From the company's web site on the BigDog robot, we learn the following fascinating details:

BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

So far, BigDog has trotted at 3.3 mph, climbed a 35 degree slope and carried a 120 lb load.

There is already a hexapodal forest maintenance robot around, but it is essentially a bulldozer with legs, limited to level terrain and requiring considerable clearance to move. (Also, the company appears to have gone under as its web site is offline.) BigDog clearly is a huge leap forward simply because it can climb!

But BigDog is more than that, because it is actually an adaptive learning robot as well, based on the neural network technology of LittleDog:

LittleDog is a quadruped robot for research on learning locomotion. Scientists at leading institutions use LittleDog to probe the fundamental relationships among motor learning, dynamic control, perception of the environment, and rough terrain locomotion.

LittleDog has four legs, each powered by three electric motors. The legs have a large range of motion and workspace. The motors are strong enough for dynamic locomotion, including climbing. The onboard PC-level computer does sensing, actuator control and communications. LittleDog's sensors measure joint angles, motor currents, body orientation and foot/ground contact. Control programs access the robot through the Boston Dynamics Robot API.

LittleDog will use advanced learning algorithms to traverse rough terrain and negotiate obstacles.

What this means in practice is that a BigDog can be "trained" for specific unusual types of terrain like sand dunes or shale and scree slopes. Anyone who has done firefighting or Search And Rescue work in difficult wilderness terrain knows what a huge help robots like this could be. And with the added funding opportunities from military contracts, Talos and I expect big things in the future from these excellent robotic canines. (Images courtesy of Boston Dynamics. Heads up to Engadget and Danger Room for the original links.)

NB: If you'd like to see a catalog of robots able to walk in some fashion, try this MIT link.

The Adventure Of The Robots From MAARS

The MAARS-tians are coming! The MAARS-tians are coming!

(Okay, they're from MIT and Boston, MA rather than The Red Planet, but it does make a catchy slogan, don'cha think?)

Those of you who pay attention to robots in the news have probably heard about the Predator system and its ability to fire Hellfire missiles. You may have also heard of the SWORDS system built on the very successful TALON chassis from Foster-Miller. The limitation of each of these systems is that they must be controlled quite tightly by a human operator to prevent a "Terminator" situation of a robot attacking its own people due to a software mistake (or malign intent if you believe that an electronic cam follower can somehow become self-motivating.) This obviously limits their usefulness in combat; in fact, to date only one confirmed incident of a robotic "kill" has been publicly disclosed (and it was from an aerial platform, not a ground one!) Most of the problems come from mistaken firing by the operator either due to a software mis-identification of a target or operator confusion in the "fog of war".

From Wired.com's Danger Room blog now comes word of a revised SWORDS platform dubbed with fine military punnery the MAARS. The money quote from the article is this:

MAARS (Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System) features new software controls, which allow the robot's driver to select fire and no-fire zones. The idea is keep the robots from accidentally shooting a flesh-and-blood American. A mechanical range fan also keeps MAARS' gun pointed away from friendly positions.

The robot is also equipped with a GPS transmitter, so it can be seen on -- and tap into -- the American battlefield mapping programs, just like tanks and Humvees. These "Blue Force Trackers" have been credited with dramatically reducing friendly-fire incidents during the Iraq war. MAARS comes with an extra fail-safe, which won't allow it to fire directly at its own control unit.

Notice that the robot is already "off the shelf" integrated into the current BMP systems in use in Iraq and elsewhere. Also note that it has three different means of preventing a friendly-fire accident.

The SWORDS system is quite daunting in and of itself, as described from the product brochure: (warning: PDF link)

• Direct engagement with M16, M240, M249, Barrett 50 cal.
• Alternate mounts for 40 mm grenade launcher and M202 anti-tank rocket systems.
• All-terrain, all-weather tracked vehicle with day/night capability.
• High flotation and traction for operations in soft sand, mud, snow or heavy brush.
• Controlled through RF or fiber optic link from an attaché-sized operator control unit (OCU) or wearable OCU.
• Vehicle speed of 4 mph (6.6 kmh).
• Four-hour run time.

But a robot no one can use is in the end just an expensive R and D project. The MAARS revision is designed to let the SWORDS platform be used to its full potential in the harsh reality of urban fighting and asymmetric warfare. (Images courtesy of Foster-Miller.)