Bill Smart is an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St Louis, MO. With a Ph.D. His student Doug Few, he is working on the next generation of military robotics. The US military has apparently set 2020 as the goal for having 30% of the Army composed of robotic forces.
Neither the researchers nor the military assume squadrons combat-ready “clones and drones” a la Hotels Wars or Isaac Asimov. Rather, Professor Smart explains, they are talking about “self-driving trucks,” bomb-sniffing and other support systems that more accurately called “autonomous systems rather than robots.”
Rosie the Robot Maid A number of different technologies flow into the design and development of robotic military systems. Night-Vision “eyes,” ultrasensitive microphone “ears” and other sensors picking up sound, heat signatures and even smells transfer speed back to the operator at a remote location. With a computer screen or two, and a joystick, a soldier at the controls has a high-tech scout, Bomb Squad, cargo carrier and intelligence gatherer all in one.
When he thinks “the future robots,” says Ph.D. candidate Few, it is always the “Jetsons. George Jetson never sat down at a computer to task Rosie to clean the house. Somehow had this local exchange of information. So what we’ve been working on is how we can use the local environment rather the computer projects the medium to the robot. “
The Packbot from iRobot Corporation is a far cry from Rosie the Robot Maid, in onboard intelligence and dexterity, but is already seeing duty in both Afghanistan and Iraq, delivering materiel and transporting gear dangerous terrain. As technology continues to evolve, more robots have been applied earlier in situations considered, at least initially, too dangerous for humans. “When I stood there and looked at [the battle-damaged Packbot], I realized that if that robot had not been there, there would have been some kid,” Few said. Civilian applications Police departments are quick to press into service any military technology that they can get their hands on. In fact, the “militarization of” American law enforcement, which has been gaining steam for at least several decades, has not been an unqualified success in the eyes of all.
summer of 2007, Radley Balko, a senior editor for Reason magazine, testified before the House Subcommittee on Crime. “Since the late 1980s,” he told the assemblage, “thanks to the measures adopted by the US Congress, have millions of pieces of surplus military equipment have been given to local police departments across the country. We are not talking just about computers and office equipment. Military-grade semi-automatic weapons, armored personnel vehicles, tanks, helicopters, planes, and all manner of other equipment designed for use on the battlefield is now used on American streets, against American citizens. “
Bomb- squad robots, with technology field tested in numerous military hotspots of the world, have already made their way into many large urban police forces. As technology evolves, Pack Bots and other special-purpose military robots will also join the local ranks of American law enforcement. “Academic criminologists,” Balko added, “credit these transfers with the dramatic rise in paramilitary SWAT teams over the last quarter century.”
Private use proliferates One can see an increase in SWAT raids as good or bad by the inspector of police, the principle of subsidiarity, civil rights and other political issues hot potato. However, much less controversial is the application of military-tested technologies, including robotics, to private end, such as security and self-defense.
Activ Media Robotics of Peterborough, NH, manufactures a number of “security robots.” PatrolBot and similar mobile sensing and surveillance systems function as back-ups to other, fixed systems, while providing additional, supplemental data, too. In many cases, PatrolBot can deploy sensors that are either too rarely used or too costly to install in permanent locations around the facility.
Facilities managers at a Hewlett-Packard server facility need a 3-D thermal map húsrými, for example. If they install temperature sensors all over the building, it could affect the mobility of people, so PatrolBot is sensor-laden pole to map the temperature in the facility at specified intervals. Added option of robots in these kinds of settings, is that they operate autonomously, make retrofitting the facilities unnecessary and can handle a variety of emergencies without endangering people.
On patrol Roanoke, VA-based Cyber Motion produces Cyber Guard line, originally introduced in mid-1990 units can be equipped with various sensors – environmental, infra-red, thermal, etc. -. And the number of cameras that relay real-time video by radio or Wi-Fi back to a central control point
can control the pan, tilt and zoom functions of the camera remotely, and for archival purposes a continuous or time-lapse video can be recorded to a hard drive aboard the robotic vehicle and a control station. Independently saved copies will ensure that damage to the Cyber Guard, whether intentionally or unintentionally, will not erase all the data collected to that point.
Security robots featuring real-time, color video and other options Jetson-era are not “wave of the future,” but are here and available now. Various types of these robots, while still innovative new tools for large area security and other specialized military and law-enforcement activities, are not considered a “fix all” item or “magic bullet”, by any means.
ready for prime time? Marketing position Activ Media’s growing family of “bots” as part of “robust security solution,” allowing companies and more homeowners to improve the chances of dealing successfully with any “unexpected hazard.” The price of a standard PatrolBot drop from $ 40,000 to a little more than half that since 2002, more and more small businesses and large estates can consider budgeting for such devices.
Adding mobile video surveillance will not guarantee improvements every security system, but in the right places, these robots can make all the difference. It is a serious cost-benefit analysis to perform before writing out a check for one of these units, and there are ongoing costs of operation, certainly, from a variety of locations that will be out (wheels, gears, levers, etc.), batteries required to pay, control equipment needed redundancy and so on.
next frontier For savvy businesspeople, especially those with large physical plants and extensive perimeters, mobile surveillance cameras with some onboard brains might be a smart investment. Others who are less savvy, but are dyed-in-the-wool technophiles, may talk in PackBot or Cyber Guard purchase just because they are early adopters – or want to see if they can control the robot with the iPhone or some other gadget .
Now the military and its “preferred providers” are hard at work on equipment robot battle. It is not likely that we will see a lot of this new technology trickling down to business and consumer-level products, at least not immediately. Project development a few decades, however, it is not hard to imagine Rosie trading in a maid’s apron for the badge and gun. Rosie the Robot Cop? Watch out, George!