A torso, arms and a head are planned for this stair-climbing DARPA robot to be used for developers in the DARPA Robotics Challenge.

No sooner does DARPA lay down the Robotics Challenge gauntlet do they then entice would be entrants by giving them a glimpse of what they get to work with. DARPA released a video recently of their robot stomping impressively up a flight of stairs. If you’re not familiar, the Robotics Challenge is a competition in which the winning robot(s) will successfully carry out a set of tasks on a disaster simulation course. DARPA’s raising the bar with the course, requiring the robots to, among other things, drive a vehicle, climb a ladder, and identify and fix a leaky pipe. The winning team get $2 million and undoubtedly YouTube celebrity.

The competition is broken up into four tracks. Tracks A and D will build their own robot and develop their own software. But those who don’t qualify to get DARPA funding for their work in Track A will have to supply their own funding through Track D. Tracks B and C work similarly, except teams in these tracks will only develop software and use DARPA’s government funded equipment (GFE) – aka, the robot – as part of their platform.

The stairmaster was developed in collaboration with Boston Dynamics who, with their stock of rugged, can-do robots like Petman and Alpha Dog, have to be a favorite for the Challenge.

I’m really excited to see what solutions the world’s robotics developers unleash on the obstacle course. DARPA’s high-steppin’ robot in the video isn’t complete. A torso, arms, and a head will be added so entrants can climb that ladder and seal that pipe leak. The course is a seriously difficult challenge and most likely it’ll be a few years before a robot raises its arms – or arachnoid appendages – in victory. But one thing is clear, DARPA is serious about making that happen as soon as possible.

[image credits: DARPAtv via YouTube]
video credit: DARPAtv via YouTube]
images: DARPA
video: DARPA

DARPA's Robotic Challenge, where robots will perform tasks at a simulated catastrophe site, is sure to attract humanoid robots like Petman.

Five years after the DARPA Grand Challenge robotic cars are already hitting the roads and states are preparing for their eventual arrival. Now DARPA is launching a new Robotics Challenge that will test the most advanced robotics solutions in a simulated disaster obstacle course. The challenge – and the cash prize – will almost certainly prove a major catalyst for the near future of robotics technologies.

In the event of a natural or man-made disaster, it’s always better to put robots in harm’s way instead of humans. With this in mind, the Robotics Challenge is a wide open, task-driven test. Instead of specifying specific technologies, DARPA is saying get to the finish line anyway you can.

What DARPA wants to see is a robot that has human-like “mobility and manipulation” abilities. At a disaster scene robots will have to make use of the same machinery and tools that human rescue teams have to use. The different stages of the challenge are meant to simulate an emergency response to a natural or manmade disaster. The robot will enter an open-frame vehicle like a John Deere Gator or Polaris Ranger, turn it on, and drive it – steering, throttle, brakes and all – to the disaster scene. Once it’s pulled up to the pile of rubble, it will exit the vehicle and climb over the sloped terrain littered with loose rocks, trees, ditches, and other obstacles it has to negotiate or avoid. Eventually the robot will reach an entryway blocked with debris that it will have to remove. Once the debris is cleared, it has to operate a door handle and push the door open. Inside, it will have to climb a ladder to reach a catwalk. After crossing the catwalk it will reach a concrete panel or a framed wall that it has to bust through using something like an electric hammer or chisel. Waiting for it on the other side of the panel will be a series of pipes, only one of which will be leaking. The robot has to spot the smoke or hear the hissing sound to locate the faulty pipe and then close the pipe’s turn valve. Lastly, the rescue robot’s day will end after locating and replacing a cooling pump.

They somehow forgot to include pulling small children from a burning building.

DARPA hasn’t yet decided by what criteria exactly the robots will be judged except that the robots get points for operating autonomously and using less energy.

Robots like iRobot's Packbot have already lent a helping hand to emergency response crews, but DARPA wants a robot that can do just about everything a human could do.

If you’re a big fan of humanoid robots like Petman, you may be biased towards imagining a band of Superman-like – or Terminator-like – robots coming to the rescue. But DARPA emphasizes that the winning robot will get the job done, humanoid or not. They want to make it clear that a team should go ahead if they think an arachnoid robot would do the job better than a spiderman robot.

The team that builds the winning robot pockets $2 million.

The robots won’t be required to be completely autonomous but will operate with “supervised autonomy.” Under supervised autonomy, the controller gives general commands without having to carry out basic functions of perception and action.

I expect that Boston Dynamics will be one of the competing teams. But it will be interesting to see which direction they go in. Will they go straight humanoid and try to develop Petman, or will Alpha Dog be the more sensible choice? Maybe we’ll see something entirely new.

DARPA realizes that the challenge is really, really tough, calling it “DARPA hard” but not impossible. For them it’s a longterm commitment. The competition will be held once a year, at the endpoint of two separate phases. Phase 1 will last 15 months, beginning October 1, 2012 to December 31, 2013. There’s no cash prize for the Phase 1 winners. But they qualify to move onto the second phase, which will last 12 moths from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014. Any company or research team, anywhere in the world, can compete.

Needless to say, the humanoid robot envisioned by DARPA will require some seriously advanced technologies, and lots of them. To maximize their chances for success, the program is broken up into different tracks so that entrants can tackle a problem that is suited to their strength. Track A is for teams developing both hardware and software, while Track B is for software developers only. Any proposal that is chosen for Tracks A and B will be funded – $3 million for Track A, $375,000 for Track B. Tracks C and D will compete in the same categories, except they’ll have to build their robot and software at their own expense.

DARPA will build its own robot so that teams focused solely on software development will have a test bed. The so-called Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) platform will have arms with two or three fingers and 7 degrees of freedom, legs with 6 degrees of freedom, and a head equipped with stereo vision and laser radar.

The challenge was inspired by the Fukushima disaster last year in Japan. Gill Pratt, the DARPA program manager in charge of the challenge, said in the first 24 hours following the disaster crucial tasks couldn’t be performed because it was too dangerous for people to go into the ruined reactor. DARPA is certainly serious about making sure the US can take care of business. The $2 million cash prize is just a small part of their investment. Including the funded research, DARPA will spend up to $34 million for its rescue robot of the future.

Each of the different tasks could probably be performed separately by different robots, but DARPA’s effort to bring the different technologies into a single robot will undoubtedly create something great. I’m excited for our competitors. May the best robot win! What it will look like is anybody’s guess.

[image credits: Boston Dynamics and CNET]
image 1: Petman
image 2: Petman
image 3: iRobot

With human-like movements, PETMAN will help the military assess the performance of their chemical protection suits.

Look out cute and cuddly Nao. Get out of the way ever-attentive Asimo, a new robot’s on the march and he can smash both of you and your girly-man voices with his pinky – if he had a pinky, that is, or even hands for that matter. The Terminator-looking PETMAN even has a red light to stare down its soon-to-be roadkill. As it walks, it carries its six-foot, 180 pound frame with an imposing swagger. It can run, do push-ups, and perform other movements with an impressive likeness to the human motions it’s supposed to emulate. The tough guy even keeps its balance when pushed from the side.

PETMAN is Boston Dynamics’ test dummy – Protection Ensemble Test Mannequin – for the military. No, they’re not creating an army of Terminators to replace our troops, but using it to test chemical protection suits for soldiers – at least that’s what’s being widely reported. I couldn’t find the specific DARPA program, and while Boston Dynamics says PETMAN will perform “suit-stressing calisthenics during exposure to chemical warfare agents,” one has to wonder if there are bigger plans for the robot than a chemical bath. Part of a $26.3M program, the advances gleaned from PETMAN could benefit DARPA’s RE-NET program that’s developing neural interfaces for prosthetics. Or we can get really conspiracy theorist here and say DARPA’s hoping to one day put a gun in PETMAN’s capable hands, and eyes on its head, laser-sighting, night vision…anything a kick butt robot soldier might need to crush the enemy. For the time being we’ll let DARPA stick with their chemical suit story. But we know better than that, right?

Boston Dynamics made it a point to build a robot that reproduced human movements with a high degree of realism so that the suits could be accurately evaluated. When fitted with the suits, PETMAN will actually have a physiologic control apparatus to control temperature, humidity, and – get this – sweating. In lieu of volunteers who would readily report that the quinuclidinyl benzilate did in fact get a bit under his collar, I’d say PETMAN will come in quite handy. Watch PETMAN flex its muscles in the following video.

Boston Dynamics specializes in building robots which are heavy duty enough to lend a helping hand to our soldiers on the battlefield. They recently trotted out Alpha Dog, the four-legged robot meant to be the soldier’s best friend by shouldering his gear up to 400 pounds across rough terrain. Like Alpha Dog, PETMAN is being built for DARPA. It took Boston Dynamics 13 months to design the anthropomorphic robot and another 17 months to build it.

I can see it now.

A chemical wave come crashing down on PETMAN, melting its suit and exposing its unearthly metal skeleton underneath. For a moment the robot is down, motionless…then…the red glow flickers back to life, and begins to brighten….

[image credits: Boston Dynamics]
[video credits: Boston Dynamics via YouTube]
images: Boston Dynamics
video: Boston Dynamics

Google's fleet of robot cars have logged 140,000 miles on its own. Awesome, but we are not ready.

Google shocked the world this weekend by announcing that not only was it developing robot car technology, but that its fleet of autonomous cars had already racked up 140,000 miles driving experience. As described in the New York Times, seven converted Toyota Prius’ use laser range finders, cameras, radar, inertial sensors, and high-detail maps to autonomously drive while humans sit behind the wheel and monitor software. While robotic cars have made leaps forward in the past decade, spurred on by DARPA’s Grand Challenge competition, Google’s accomplishment stands heads and shoulders above the rest. The search engine giant’s announcement has fueled enthusiasm across the blogosphere for the technology, and many are hoping for the first time that robot cars could be nearer than we think. They will be disappointed. Google’s venture into autonomous cars may be an epic win, but automotive regulation and government bureaucracy will raise a wall of fails in the future. Video of the Google car is available below. Celebrate the success while you can – the technology may be getting better, but society is not prepared to use it.

Google did many things very right in developing their autonomous car program. Foremost was the gathering of some of the most brilliant minds in robotic driving, as tested by DARPA’s Grand Challenge. Sebastian Thrun, head of the project, was one of the leads in the Stanford Racing Team when it won DARPA’s challenge. He also headed Google’s StreetView project. Before Chris Urmson was ‘on leave’ from Carnegie Mellon to work for Google, he developed the autonomous vehicles that brought the university victory at the Grand Challenge. Michael Montermerlo (who got his PhD in robotics from Carnegie) was the software lead for Stanford’s racing team. Anthony Levandowski made news a few years ago by developing PriBot, a Toyota Prius that drove itself through San Francisco. He also worked on autonomous motorcycles at UC Berkeley. Google’s current robot car seems like a next generation version of PriBot. All in all, Google had just 15 engineers in their robot car project, but they chose the best. That’s why a stealth project could be developed and quickly outperform so many other robotic car endeavors. Brilliant strategy, no doubt about it. You can see Urmson behind the wheel in the Google robotic Prius in the video from NY Times below.

Robert Scoble, aka Scobleizer, actually caught the Google car on video back in January, but didn’t know what it was at the time.

The Google car looks great, and it’s performed well, but it’s likely many years from reaching the masses. From the NY Times:

The self-driving car initiative is an example of Google’s willingness to gamble on technology that may not pay off for years, Dr. Thrun said. Even the most optimistic predictions put the deployment of the technology more than eight years away.

It will simply be a matter of time before autonomous cars have the range of capabilities needed to replace human drivers. Yes, the Google fleet drove down Lombard Street’s curves, it handled the wind on the Golden Gate Bridge, and it dared the cliffs of the Pacific Coast Highway. Yet it hasn’t shown that it can defend itself around drunk drivers, dodge children dashing into the street, or notice that the bicyclist next to the road is signaling to cross into its lane. Human drivers face these problems all the time, even if they regularly make mistakes (1.2 million lives lost each year according to the World Health Organization). Google’s system currently relies on a lead car making detailed maps of the route ahead of the autonomous car’s passing. Robot vehicles still need semi-controlled situations to succeed. Years will pass before the controls needed are whittled down to match the variety of scenarios human drivers face all around the world every day. Even then, such systems will need to be tested and retested, made much more reliable than the computers we use (and crash) on our desktops today.

But let’s look ahead to that time, maybe a decade from now maybe much less, when robot vehicles can perform as well as humans. Already, we’ve seen how the Stanford team is developing a system that can race up Pike’s Peak. When robots can defeat rally car drivers the world will be suitably impressed. I’m sure there will be many exhibitions on NASCAR and Formula tracks everywhere highlighting their skill. It won’t matter much. Even once the robots are ready to drive in real world situations, I still think it will take many more years before we actually see automated cars on the road.

For all that was done right, Google did one major thing wrong – they approached the robot car like it was only a technology challenge. It’s not. It’s also a social-legal one. Those 1.2 million people who lose their lives to car accidents each year mostly have other humans to blame. Drivers are held accountable for the machines they control. Who is accountable for an autonomous vehicle? The Google project had manned test drives, and various means for the human to quickly grab control. Not because the car was making mistakes. It never caused a single accident, though it was rear-ended by a human driver. No, the Google robot cars needed to be manned because California state law, not to mention our sense of scientific ethics, demands a human be responsible for a potentially lethal activity.

When robots are ready to drive for us, there will still be accidents. Much fewer, one hopes, but millions in damages and thousands of lives lost all the same. Who will answer for that loss? The company that designs the robot’s software, the car manufacturer who installed it, or the driver who believed that they didn’t need to pay attention because their car was driving itself?

Toyota just spent millions repairing and recalling cars that occasionally had sticking accelerator pedals. They face ongoing lawsuits, and are likely to be confronted by more, blaming them for collisions. That’s just a single instance of a faulty piece of automotive technology. When human drivers cannot control their cars, the manufacturers face enormous legal consequences. When then will we want to pursue a vehicle that takes away the responsibility of driving from humans? No one could face the legal burden, no matter how safe their autonomous cars could be.

That doesn’t mean that robotic cars will never arrive. I just think they’ll appear in small steps. More stealth, less hype. Already we have systems in place that make driving easier, while never removing humans from the equation. Think about the automated systems already in your car: automatic transmissions, airbags, and anti-lock brakes. We’re adding more all the time. Vehicles have camera systems surrounding their cars to help with parking and to avoid collisions (Google uses commercial versions in their robot car). Some new cars automatically engage the brakes if they detect a slowing or stopped object ahead, and more companies will be adding these accident avoidance systems in the future. Technologies that ‘enhance’ the human driver, or ‘increase safety’ help sell cars, and edge us close to autonomy. The goal is to get people to be safer drivers, to provide automated systems to aid us when we’re about to make a mistake, not to take over the responsibility of driving completely. 100% autonomous vehicles are a legal nightmare…but 50%, 75%? That could be done, maybe sooner than we think, and with happy results. It doesn’t take a fully robotic car to save thousands of lives each year.

If I were to predict how Google’s autonomous car project would really affect our lives, I would point to all the possible applications it could enable that don’t involve the dream of robotic vehicles. Advanced laser range finding and radar sensors can be integrated into modern cars to help with anti-collision braking controls, or to create a warning system for drivers. Highly detailed maps could change the way we drive. Google’s Prius has a voice announce when you approach a crosswalk, or near a turn. Imagine a GPS guidance system that gave you 100% accurate help, and warned you of complex dangers like children that play nearby. There are many different ways in which the Google autonomous car projects could help us drive better.

…and yes, one of those ways will be, eventually, the adoption of fully robotic cars. I do believe that 100% autonomous vehicles will arrive, it will simply take longer than we think. Cars will become more and more helpful, removing more and more of the risks of driving, until automated systems are standard safety features for driving. From there we will make the leap to robotic cars. But there will be legal battles, social mores will have to be changed, and it’s likely to bankrupt at least one major car manufacturer in the process. Years after the robots are ready to drive, we’ll be ready to let them. For now we can applaud Google, and go back to our normal lives. Autonomous driving is not near.

[image credit: NYTimes / Ramin Rahimian]
[video credit: NYTimes, Robert Scoble/Scobleizer]
[sources: Google Blog, NY Times]

Swarms of WiFi robots will establish networks in the war zones of the future.

The army of the future may rely as much on WiFi as they do on weapons. To that end, iRobot has built the diminutive Ember, a mobile robotic platform that can work in a group to establish a wireless network anywhere. The pocket-sized tank is part of DARPA’s LANdroid program which aims to create a fleet of these bots, each hopefully costing less than $100. iRobot’s newest video of the Ember shows off all the cool improvements they’ve made to the bot. It now has cliff and wall detection, an optional laser scanner, four cameras, and 2 way audio. They’ve also improved its mobility and had success with mesh networking. Click on the image below to see the Ember in action on the iRobot website. This small robot may make a big impact in the future of war.

As we mentioned in previous coverage of the Ember, the small robot does more than just bring in WiFi, it can also serve as an extra pair of eyes in the field. Since last year’s demonstration for the device, iRobot has added in even more sensors. This could make the Ember into a cheap hand-held scout that any soldier can carry into battle and use to find enemy combatants, traps, or other dangers. Meanwhile, its wireless network would connect soldiers to each other and to more advanced aerial and combat drones that are already in the US Army’s arsenal. A damaged or destroyed Ember can be easily compensated for by the rest of its swarm mates, and at $100 each, chances are we’ll see these bots driven into the rough and explosive areas where they’re needed most. All that, and the little bot looks pretty cool as well. I need to get a pair of those flippers for my next car.

Click the image to see the latest video from iRobot.

While the video indicates that the Ember can right itself, and handle fairly rough terrain, it doesn’t show the bot accomplishing its primary goal: autonomously establishing an optimized wireless network. DARPA’s plans for LANdroids calls for them to be able to roll out into the field and automatically position themselves to maximize signal strength in a region, no matter what kinds of walls, fallen structures, or vehicles may be in the area. It’s great that Ember has more cameras and improved mobility, but those are capabilities we’ve seen before in other robots. What we really want to see is a team of Embers zip across a simulated urban warzone and establish a network, and that same team healing the network as several of the bots are destroyed. Obviously, that’s still forthcoming.

Once the Ember fulfills its LANdroid destiny of autonomously establishing networks in warzones, it will grant unprecedented connectivity to soldiers in the field. Humans would be able to access vital data streams that may contain everything from battlefield surveillance to first aid medical guidance. With such data soldiers will be able to see where they shouldn’t be able to see, know what they haven’t been trained to know, and strike in with coordination that humans couldn’t accomplish on their own. That’s the power of robots and humans working together.

Those capabilities will be more and more important as we transition away from traditional types of military engagements. Prolonged urban ‘policing actions’ like those we’ve seen in Iraq are likely to be repeated in the future. Robots like Ember will give soldiers a better idea of what is happening around them, and connect them to the larger support structures of their units. In the end, these improvements in data management and connectivity may save more lives than deadlier weapons ever could.

[image credits: iRobot]
[source: iRobot]

The MPL will be hard-wired directly into the brain.

The world’s first human testing of a mind-controlled artificial limb is ready to begin. A joint project between the Pentagon and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Modular Prosthetic Limb will be fully controlled by sensors implanted in the brain, and will even restore the sense of touch by sending electrical impulses from the limb back to the sensory cortex.  Last month APL announced it was awarded a $34.5 million contract with DARPA, which will allow researchers to test the neural prosthesis in five individuals over the next two years.

We’ve been reporting on major advances in artificial limbs for a while now, but this is the holy grail of prosthetic technology. Phase III testing – human subjects testing – will be used to tweak the system, both improving neural control over the limb and optimizing the algorithms which generate sensory feedback. The Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) is the product of years of prototype design – it includes 22 degrees of motion, allows independent control of all five fingers, and weighs the same as a natural human arm (about nine pounds). Patients will control the MPL with a surgically implanted microarray which records action potentials directly from the motor cortex.

Researchers plan to install the first system into a quadriplegic patient; while amputees can be outfitted with traditional prostheses, the MPL will be the first artificial limb that can sidestep spinal cord injury by plugging directly into the brain. This isn’t the first brain-controlled interface to be used in humans – we’ve previously reported on Braingate, a system that uses brain impulses to control computer cursors and restore communication to locked-in patients. But the MPL will offer the first hard-wired neural control of bionic body parts, whether lost to injury or neurodegenerative disease.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the one of more conceptually adventurous R&D agencies run through the Department of Defense. The brain-interface MPL is the most cutting-edge project – in fact, the original purpose – of their larger Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, which aims to improve prosthetic technology to treat veterans who have lost limbs in combat. DARPA often collaborates with (i.e. funds) university research teams and companies whose expertise can speed research along.

Such was the case with the Deka Luke Arm, a competing prosthesis technology which we covered last year. Deka, which is owned and run by Segway inventor Dean Kamen, was awarded $18 million by DARPA as part of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program. The result is the Luke Arm, a prosthesis with 18 degrees of freedom that can be controlled in several ways. Generally, the prosthesis is hooked up to both pads under the feet (kind of like a remote joystick) as well as shoulder sensors. The Luke Arm has also been wired into patients’ remaining chest nerves, using a technique called targeted muscle reinnervation.  This technique allows something comparable to the MPL (users’ thoughts control their own nerves, wired to the prosthesis). The Smart Hand (which we covered last year) was developed by EU researchers and uses a similar prosthesis-to-nerve connection.

The Luke Arm is an impressive leap forward for prosthetic technology, offering precise movement as well as pressure control – plus it’s already in clinical trials. But if the MPL can deliver on its promise of a cleanly-controlled prosthesis that is wired directly to the brain, it will most likely become the gold standard of artificial limbs.  What remains to be seen is how well the brain sensors can translate a patient’s intentions into smooth, functional movements of the arm (and whether they can do better than muscle reinnervation). The agency is working to improve the precision of neural recordings, as well as boost the maximum number of impulses that can be recorded per second.  Improving these spatial and temporal recordings will help to match the MPL’s movements to the patient’s intentions.

The biggest problem with neural interfaces is their short lifespan. Over time, silicon chips embedded in wet tissue begin to break down within the body, and need to be replaced within about two years.  Earlier this year, DARPA announced a program called Histology for Interface Stability Over Time; the goal is to pinpoint how and why neural implants fail, and ultimately to boost their lifespan to 70 years. Without more permanent neural arrays, patients would need to undergo replacement surgery multiple times over their lifespan.

While the research is primarily a joint venture between Johns Hopkins and DARPA, the project will tap multiple institutions for varying forms of expertise. The University of Pittsburgh (who have already implanted monkeys with sensors to control robot arms) and CalTech will help with brain-computer interface design. The University of Chicago will aid the project with restoring sensory input, which will be an integral part of the MPL. The University of Utah will provide experience with the actual brain sensors to be implanted, and HDT Engineered Technologies will bring their skill in prosthetic technology to the project.

The program has some serious hurdles to overcome, and undoubtedly more technical obstacles will present themselves as trials begin. That being said, this is the most exciting project in prosthetic science to date. A fully integrated artificial limb would mark a new milestone in bionic technology: wiring external devices safely and directly into the nervous system. No more remotely controlled sensors, no more muscular myosensors… instead, a direct line from thought to action, and sensory experience restored to the brain.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the MPL as new information emerges on Phase III trials. And until we can show you its neural integration, check out the MPL working remotely:

[image credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; DARPA]

Behold the monocopter - a whirling wing of wonder!

The University of Maryland has produced a flying machine with only one wing – a monocopter! Evan Ulrich, its PhD student creator, modeled the micro air vehicle (MAV) on a maple seed samara. Using a propeller, the Samara MAV spins itself in a circle around the end of the wing, creating lift that causes it to fly. Small changes to the pitch of the wing allow Ulrich to control where it goes. Trust me, you’ve never seen anything like this before – check it out in the videos below.

The US military spends hundreds of millions on drones and drone-supported operations. Ulrich’s Samara MAV is funded in part by DARPA’s Nano-air Vehicle initiative which is aimed at expanding the diversity and applications of those drones. While we’ve seen various rotor-based unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the past, but this monocopter is unique. It makes a complete rotation several times per second, allowing an onboard camera to collect a full 360 panoramic view. With the right video software, the Samara MAV could provide extremely detailed and virtual 3D images of its environment. With its small size, thousands could be deployed in an area at relatively low cost.

The following video gives an awesome history of how the Samara MAV, feel free to rock out.

In this second clip Ulrich discusses a few of the advantages of the MAV and its possible applications.

At the end of the second video, we see the view from an on board camera. Clearly that image would need to be processed (perhaps even taken with a different kind of a camera) in order to provide the panoramic observations I discussed above. Considering how quickly video technology advances however, I’m sure that the means to collect data from the MAV could be constructed rather soon, it if doesn’t exist already.

The Samara is such a unique flying vehicle that the way it works can seem confusing. A propeller and weight sit on either end of a beam which is attached to the end of the single wing. That beam isn’t an airfoil. Instead, it just provides the structural support to get the wing rotating. It’s the wing which provides all the lift. Variations in wing pitch (controlled by a motor) and changes in propeller force can each cause the monocopter to move up and down. An autopilot system already allows the Samara MAV to maintain its own vertical position. Horizontal movement is controlled by precisely timed variations in wing orientation and speed at desired points along the MAV’s rotation. There’ s a patent pending, and more information on the Samara’s flight can be found in this paper presented to the American Helicopter Society.

At first glance, the monocopter may seem like little more than a novelty. It’s small, only nine grams with no dimension longer than 15 cm, and it can only sustain about 10 minutes of flight. If it is fully developed, however, the Samara could become the model for easily deployable, perhaps even disposable, spy drones. Drop the MAV from on high and let it auto-rotate down like a maple seed, using its short battery life to steer it as needed, while it spins and collects full 360 degree views of a battlefield. Or make them out of decomposable materials and use them to survey huge fields of wilderness. Hook them up to the Internet of things and they become invaluable, all-seeing monitors. The possibilities are there, though it is likely to take a long time to bring them to fruition. That’s alright, Ulrich’s been working on this thing for almost four years, what’s a few more?

[screen capture and video credits: Ulrich/University of Maryland as Robo Seed on YouTube]
[source: Project 9 Robotic Samara, Journal of the American Helicopter Society, AIAA Journal of Aircraft]

Nuclear batteries could help power the electronics attached to insect spies...they may also prove effective against Godzilla.

They don’t have the pomp and flair of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but Nuclear Cyborg Insect Spies are still shell-shocking researchers in the world of miniaturized electronics. We’ve already reported on how DARPA funded research teams are using electrodes to control insects in flight to adapt them for surveillance. The associated group at Cornell, however, is trying to solve the problem of getting cyborg bugs to carry heavy batteries. The solution: ditch traditional chemical cells and use light weight nuclear power instead. Amit Lal and his team are adapting a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) that generates electricity from radioactive decay to work with the flying insect project. They recently presented their work at the International Electron Devices Meeting sponsored by IEEE. The nuclear powered MEMS doesn’t use fusion or fission but rather harnesses the natural release of power from an unstable isotope, Nickel-63, as it turns into copper. These MEMS nuclear batteries won’t just power the insect spies of the future, they could provide electricity for all sorts of micro devices, allowing them to run for a hundred years without a recharge.

The nuclear battery MEMS works by collecting the radiation from the Nickel-63 onto a small cantilever that is only 40 microns thick and 4 to 8 mm long. Nickel-63 releases beta particles (electrons) onto the cantilever which slowly charges and is attracted to the sample. The lever discharges as the two touch and then springs back. This springing back is what generates electricity (via a piezoelectric transducer). The cantilever then begins to slowly charge again and the cycle repeats. See the diagram for a demonstration. It sort of reminds me of a nuclear version of the Drinking Bird.

The Cornell MEMS uses Nickel-63 which radiates electrons onto a cantilever. Electricity is generated by harnessing the mechanical energy of the cantilever as it attracts, discharges, and then springs back.

Lal is using the nuclear MEMS to power a transmitter for the cyborg insect spies. Due to the intermittent nature of the electricity (power is only harnessed during the spring-back ) the RF transmitter attached to the battery only signals once every 3 minutes. That interval can be changed, however, by adjusting cantilever length (at a cost of power). Right now the MEMS generates 5 milliwatts for 10 microseconds – enough power to act as a wireless node, perform periodic sensing/processing, and communicate with other devices.

The great benefits of nuclear powered batteries are their very long lives and very high energy densities. Nickel-63 has a half life of a hundred years (IEEE says 12?) which is much better than the year or two shelf life for most chemical batteries. Also, Lal’s nuclear MEMS is only 0.06% efficient but still provides enough energy for the RF transmitter and is less than 1 square inch in size. When the device is eventually optimized, it could provide much more power. Nuclear MEMS could provide the means to create insect spies, or place tiny sensors in buildings and bridges to track stress over their lifetimes, or cover the globe in weather tracking beacons. One day we may have nuclear batteries in all our small scale electronics.

Critics will rightfully worry about the ramifications of using so much nuclear power and so close to living things. The beta particles emitted from Nickel-63, however, are not very energetic. They can be blocked by a few sheets of paper, and only penetrate about 20 microns into exposed flesh. That’s probably not enough to be a major health hazard, although more research will needed to make sure. Unlike fission, radioactive decay does not leave us with radioactive waste but rather an radioactively inert (generally non-toxic) element. There’s yet to be a study on how long-term exposure to a nuclear MEMS will affect cybernetic insects, but my guess would be that very little will happen over the life of the bug.

Still, this technology remains in the testing stages, and it’s too soon to predict how and where it will eventually be used. The Cornell team has had similar MEMS devices in development since 2004 without drastic changes, so it’s hard to say if the technology will advance quickly in the next few years. Hopefully, however, nuclear MEMS will be thoroughly explored and tested to see if they could become the next paradigm in powering electronics. We’ve had the same chemical batteries, more or less, since the 1800s. It’s time for an upgrade. As for the Nuclear Cyborg Insect Spies…we’ll let you know if the radiation makes them more effective at their jobs…or just prepares them for a career in Saturday morning cartoons.

[photo credits: Wiki Commons, Amit Lal, IEEE]

DARPA's starting work to develop a flying car. Yeee-HAW!

We live in an age of invention, my friends. DARPA, the research branch of the US Department of Defense, is hosting a workshop on January 14th for many of its developers. The topic: flying cars. That’s right, nearly fifty years after the debut of the Jetsons, we’re finally getting serious about getting people into the sky. DARPA is aiming to eventually have a prototype vehicle, to be named the Transformer or TX, which will spend the majority of its time traveling on land, but is capable of sustained flight. The proposed 1 to 4 passenger craft will need vertical take off and landing (VTOL) capabilities and be able to complete a mission on a single tank of fuel. Proponents hope that such a hybrid should help soldiers in the field avoid road side bombs and ambushes by giving drivers the ability to choose unique and dynamic paths to their destination. If the TX succeeds, it would pave the way for non-military commercial vehicles. In other words, pray that DARPA gets this done right, because it could mean flying cars for all of us.

Timetables for the TX production don’t seem to be in discussion yet. There’s certainly a lot of work to be done: development of enabling technologies, coordinating production across several contractors, and finally building a prototype. DARPA has provided a list of technologies that may be used: adaptive wing structures, ducted fan propulsion, lightweight composite materials, advanced flight control technology, hybrid electric drives, and advanced batteries. That list gives us some idea of what the TX may look like: a gas/electric rover with fold down (or other wise non-fixed) wings and fan propulsion. Definitely a cool concept.

DARPA’s TX sounds to be the opposite of the Transition from Terrafugia, a small plane that transforms into a car for driving home. Developers of flying cars have long had a difficult time figuring out exactly how much time such vehicles should spend on the ground and in the air. The Pal-V seems to want to be half and half, while the Urbanero looks more accustomed to being in the air. When it comes to a reliable commercial market though, I think that a car that is sometimes a plane is going to make more sense than a plane that is sometimes a car.

Flying just isn’t that fuel efficient, and it requires more training, and is more risky (for small personal craft). A car isn’t a bad way to get around most of the time. In emergencies, or over difficult terrain, a short flight could be just what is needed. But most of the time, economic and safety concerns should keep us on the ground for now. Which is why the DARPA TX seems to be on the right track. It has an achievable and useful aim (increased vehicle mobility/tactical versatility), benefits from many pre-existing technologies, and has the support of a major government entity. Who knows, the next decade could be the era of the flying car. I’ll take mine in green, please.

[photo credit: Warner Bros. Pictures]

Rushing wounded soldiers in MedEvac helicopters could become more successful if a suspended animation drug could extend the time they can survive.

It’s known as the golden hour. After a bullet wound or other massive trauma, soldiers in the field have about one hour to get intense medical attention. After that time, the chances of survival drop drastically. The research arm of US armed forces, DARPA, has long been interested in extending that golden window of opportunity to five or six hours, enough time to medevac someone from a remote location to a hospital. Earlier in December, DARPA announced that the Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies (TIPS) would be receiving $9.9 million in funding to determine if previously successful suspended animation programs for rodents could work with pigs. According to Wired, the 15 person team lead by Dr. Matthew Miller hopes to have positive results in just 18 months. That sort of quick paced research could soon pave the way to preserve trauma victims the world over as they make their way to help.

There are many mammals that hibernate, from chipmunks to grizzly bears, and each is able to preserve its cells despite a drop in heart rate and available oxygen. DARPA has funded researchers like Matthew Andrews who investigated how certain pancreatic enzymes allow squirrels to hibernate. Mark Roth, another DARPA funds recipient, has experimented with using hydrogen sulfide on mice to restrict the cells reception of oxygen. Using this chemical treatment, Roth was able to get mice to live 6+ hours with only 60% of their blood (analogous to a bullet wound). The pig research at TIPS will focus on getting techniques such as these to work with a cardiovascular system closer to that of humans. Suspended animation is a tricky process, as cells “wake-up” there are free radicals and poor reactions in mitochondria to deal with. Despite the likely difficulties, Matthew Miller envisions a time when every soldier could go into the field armed with a syringe filled with a hibernation cocktail. By treating injured squad mates with the cocktail, a soldier could preserve their colleague for later treatment. When adapted into civilian use such a drug could serve as a vital tool for paramedics, or preserve organs for transplant. When perfected, we may see suspended animation become a vital tool in space exploration or chronic illness management. Let’s just hope that such treatments will keep our loved ones among the living…and not the living dead.

[photo credit: Wiki Commons]

iRobot's newest creation: the blob bot

Like some sort of pulsating alien soccer ball, iRobot‘s blob robot expands and contracts to roll around and creep you out. Part of the chemical robots (chembots) $3.3 million project funded by DARPA, the blob bot is a prototype designed to one day squeeze through openings much smaller than it’s fully inflated size. Great idea, iRobot, give the mechanical monstrosity the ability to seep under doors. Now, nowhere is safe. The robot recently debuted at IROS, the joint IEEE and RSJ conference on intelligent bots. Make sure to check out the video from IEEE Spectrum after the break, but if you just want to see the bot in action go to 1:49 and skip an explanation on how it all works.

There are many things the modern soldier is capable of, but traveling through the cracks in a wall isn’t one of them. DARPA commissioned the chembots project to help find novel ways that robots could move such that they could get to places where humans, and conventional wheeled robots, cannot. If iRobot, or another manufacturer is successful, such new chembots could help locate injured people after a building collapse, or find secreted explosives, or perform reconnaissance in a building the enemy thinks is secure.

As the video mentions, the blob bot moves through a system call jamming skin enabled locomotion. JSEL takes advantage of the liquid-like behavior of small particles in a partially inflated sac. When inflated, such sacs deform and move freely. When air is evacuated, the small particles jam together, providing rigid support and structure. The blob bot is built of a shell of many jammable silicone sacs with a central fluid reservoir in the center. By controlling pressure in each sac and the center reservoir, the blob can expand and contract in order to flop around. It’s eerie and awesome at the same time.

IEEE reports that the version of the robot shown in the video is actually representative of development around one year ago. The current version of the bot is closer to incorporating sensors, and perhaps joining different copies of the robot together. I wonder if it still requires outside wires and tubes to control air flow, however. While the movement produced by this bot is unique, inflating and deflating sacs would seem to require an outside air supply (or compressor pump). To me, that necessity is a major draw back to eventually building an autonomous (and wireless) field model. But who knows, iRobot could simply be using the blob bot as a proof of concept for a different robot altogether, who’s eventual design may be nothing like what we see here.

No matter what iRobot eventually produces under the chembot umbrella, the movement we’ve seen in blob bot is remarkable. I haven’t seen a robot wiggle around in such an interesting manner since we discussed modular robotics a few months ago. Perhaps in the near future iRobot will demonstrate a prototype that can actually squeeze through a small aperture. When that happens, it’ll be time to buy some duct tape and seal up the house. What would you rather have, safety from robots or oxygen? I’ll assume passing out is a vote for safety.

[screen capture and video credit: IEEE Spectrum]

Deka's Luke Arm is in clinical trials. Will it find favor with amputees?

The future of prosthetics isn’t certain, and we’ve seen so many different next generation devices, it’s hard to know which will ultimately arise as the standard. For legs, there are spring like mechanical struts that can outperform their biological counterparts, and there are complex electronic knees and feet that contain narrow artificial intelligence. Prosthetic hands, however, haven’t evolved much in the past 60 years. But that’s about to change. We’ve seen many different robotic hands in development, and one of the most popular in the press has been Deka’s Luke Arm. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway scooter and head of Deka, helped design the electronic arm to fit the needs and desires of modern amputees. The Luke Arm went into clinical trials this summer and could become the prosthetic limb of choice for US soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet, despite the Luke Arm’s media presence (check out the 60 Minutes segment video after the break), I’m not certain it’s going to beat the competition.

For those who missed our first story on Deka’s Luke Arm, I should explain that it is controlled by pads under the feet and attached to shoulders muscles. Like a complex video game, users press on these pads to get the limb to perform desired actions. This is a robust system that allows for a precise level of control. It also takes a while to get used to. Competing prostheses, like i-Limb, use myoelectric sensors that can read nerve signals in muscles. Essentially, you think about moving your missing hand, and the prosthetic performs the action. The two approaches, joystick versus mind-control, seem grossly mismatched in the favor of the myoelectric sensors. How is the Deka arm staying competitive?

Well, largely I think the Luke Arm is winning because it is already able to start clinical trials, has Dean Kamen attached to the project, and is a remarkable piece of machinery. No doubt, the Luke Arm performs very well. It’s customizable, modular, and robust. At only 8 lbs (3.6 kg), it contains electric motors that give it 18 degrees of freedom (the human arm has 22) and pressure control. A vibrating device, called a tactor, gives the user feedback sensation that allows him or her to stop the Luke Arm before it crushes an object. In the video you can see how the device is gentle and sensitive enough to pick up a grape.

As mentioned, the Luke Arm is part of DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program. Deka received close to $18 million for the development of its device, but $30.4 million went to John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab for an alternate prosthetic that uses myoelectric sensors. That device, and APL researcher Jonathan Kuniholm, is shown towards the end of the 60 Minutes segment.

DARPA is hedging it’s bets, spreading money around to see which projects will bear fruit. Smart idea. The Luke Arm’s current trial utilizes the control pads we discussed earlier, but Kamen isn’t ruling out the use of myoelectric sensors in the future. Between the APL and Deka, DARPA is bound to get at least one fieldable prosthetic very soon.

But if you’re not a veteran, neither DARPA project may really help you much. The Luke Arm is slated to cost $100,000+, and a similar price is likely for the APL limb. That’s well beyond the means of most amputees if they do not have the insurance coverage provided by the Veteran’s Administration. The i-Limb is offered at a cheaper price (near $18,000) and is already being tested by 600 users. As most amputees are not veterans, I think that the Luke Arm has a good chance of being priced out of a large market share.

Which is why I was very interested in Jonathan Kuniholm’s Open Prosthetics project. The same biomedical engineer working at APL (on the DARPA grant) is an advocate of open source solutions and hopes that a cheap and reliable alternative could be provided for those without the means to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. Kuniholm gave an amazingly frank and thought-provoking interview to NPR’s Fresh Air earlier in the month. He discussed the budget limitations of amputees, the bias non-amputees have on appearance over function, and the media’s preference for hyperbolic stories (around 11:02). Give it a listen:

After hearing Kuniholm criticize the media for telling just two versions of technology stories (“this device is amazing, it’s going to change everything” or “this device is a horrible waste of money”) I am inclined to give a very measured outlook on the future of prosthetics. The Luke Arm is a great piece of machinery, and it’s likely to be ready soon, but it could be too costly to own and too difficult to operate. Myoelectric devices could offer some amazing possibilities, but they aren’t here yet. Surgically augmented devices, like the Smart Hand, could offer realistic feedback via nerve connections and completely outperform any other limb. But those devices are years from completion. The bottom line is that the first commercially available next-generation upper body prosthetic could be the Luke Arm, but it is certainly not going to be the last. Whichever device eventually sets the standard for limb replacement will have to be adaptable, affordable, and above all functional. May the best hand win.

[photo credit: IEEE Spectrum]
[video credit: 60 minutes via CNET]
[audio credit: NPR Fresh Air]

This little robot can jump 25 feet in the air!

Holy crap that’s cool! Earlier this week, Sandia National Labs debuted a four wheeled surveillance bot the size of a shoe box that can navigate urban environments by jumping walls. And not just those dinky chain fences with razor wires, we are talking 25 foot high urban bunkers leaped in a single bound. The Precision Urban Hopper uses a powerful piston-leg to launch itself into the air up to 30 times in a mission. That’s a lot of wall-jumping. Check out the short but awesome video. Thanks to BotJunkie for providing the slow-motion replay.

The Precision Urban Hopper was developed at Sandia as part of DARPA’s plans to help minimize soldier casualties in urban warfare . By leaping into battle, the Hopper can relay a view of the battle field back to soldiers so they won’t have to leave cover. That’s a great way to save lives and may be adopted by domestic law enforcement and homeland security as well as armed forces overseas. DARPA plans on having the robot available for testing and delivery starting at the end of 2010.

Sandia has licensed the Hopper to Boston Dynamics for production. We’ve seen some BD products before: MIT helped Little Dog navigate terrain, Big Dog was featured in our discussion of War 2.0, and the robotic wall crawler was partly their work, too. Boston Dynamics should be able to capitalize on the successes the Hopper has already notched on its little robot belt. It is GPS guided and RC controlled. Not only can the bot leap high in the air, it can adjust its launch for different sized walls and for different landing surfaces (asphalt, concrete or sand). Just look at the video. The robot may tumble and bounce, but it keeps moving right along.

Which, actually, is something we’ve seen before quite recently. The Eye Drive robot, developed in Israel, can be hurled into battle by a user. Whether tossed or launched into the mission, these two surveillance bots work on the same concept: create a mobile surveillance platform with unique access to urban battlefields. While the Eye Drive seems to have superior guidance and observation capabilities, the Hopper can…well, hop. No tossing necessary. A blend of the two platforms could easily possess the best of both worlds.

Expendable and dependable surveillance robots will save soldiers lives by allowing them to see more and enter an engagement on their own terms. That’s a great benefit, and I think it justifies the development of these robots hands down. However, I am continually troubled by the possibilities that all it would take to modify these devices into robotic suicide bombers is five minutes with a grenade and some duct tape.

Already we’ve seen the US military enjoy great success with the Predator drone, a sort of hybrid of camera and guided missile. My concern is what happens when these robots are no longer RC, but can make decisions on their own. That sort of technology is already in development, we’ve seen automated turrets (CRAM) in Baghdad, and it will complicate the way we wage war. Perhaps in a good way, maybe in a scary way. But it’s going to happen. Hopefully robots will stay out of the decision making process when it comes to killing, and humans will use robots to stay out of situations where they can be killed. If you’re a robot, and that seems agreeable to you, please jump in the air now.

[photo credits: Sandia Labs and Randy Montoya]
[video credits: BotJunkie]

MIT is teaching Little Dog new tricks in navigation.

Sometimes robot videos just make me laugh. CSAIL at MIT has been working with Boston Dynamics’ robot Little Dog, helping it navigate rough terrain in novel ways. The scrappy quadruped can dynamically shifts its weight on two legs at a time, helping it climb slopes and stairs, and generally get around.And as soon as Little Dog gets where it’s going, it promptly flops down on its belly much like a real canine. The careful steps followed by exhausted collapse gets me every time. Check out the video from BotJunkie below, and look towards the end (1:44) to see for yourself.

Little Dog’s journey is part of Phase 2 of DARPA’s Learning Locomotion Program. As those who read our War 2.0 story know, a larger version of the robot, aptly named Big Dog, is being bred to work as a mule for soldiers in the field. That bot can haul loads and keep walking even after a hefty kick (see its video below). The navigating and stepping routines that CSAIL teaches Little Dog are going to be directly portable over to Big Dog.

Having a robot make its way on a rough path isn’t new. We’ve seen how Asimo navigated terrain using an overheard camera and symbolic shapes. CSAIL’s robotic gardeners also operated under self-guidance. Little Dog is doing much the same: an overhead camera helps the bot choose it’s next steps carefully while it makes decisions and maintains its balance dynamically.

The leaps and jumps it makes may not seem impressive, but there’s definitely potential there. Accurately moving in the air and planning where to land are some of the more difficult tasks walkers have to make on a routine basis. If you want to be furthered impressed by Little Dog’s stepping prowess, check out this video from last year. It looks like CSAIL decided to give the robots some Shaolin training. Very cool.

Pattern recognition, problem solving, and decision making are all necessary when walking, and they are all tasks humans excel at. In fact, these are perhaps the only skills where humans still defeat computers every time. The fact that CSAIL is helping Boston Dynamics and DARPA develop a robot that learns as it walks is important stuff. Robotic learning is still in its infancy, and as with human infants, walking is just the first of many goals. With a strong foundation in problem solving, all learning machines need to exceed human intelligence is time. That is if they don’t get tired and flop out first.

The special report covers a lot of ground, but mostly focuses on DARPA’s Revolutionizing Prosthetics program:

“The program was created in 2005 to fund the development of two arms. The first initiative, the four-year, US $30.4 million Revolutionizing Prosthetics contract, to be completed in 2009, led by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., seeks a fully functioning, neurally controlled prosthetic arm using technology that is still experimental. The latter, awarded to Deka Research and Development Corp., Kamen’s New Hampshire–based medical products company (perhaps best known for the Segway), is a two-year $18.1 million 2007 effort to give amputees an advanced prosthesis that could be available immediately “for people who want to literally strap it on and go.” Kamen’s team designed the Deka arm to be controlled with noninvasive measures, using an interface a bit like a joystick.”

Because there are only about 6,000 prosthetic arms needed per year, the market has not been big enough to justify the large investment required to make next generation prosthetic arms. As a result it is amazing to note that commercially available prosthetic arm technology has not changed much in 100 years and is stuck in the “stone age”! Meanwhile prosthetic legs have seen significant investment and are extremely advanced and capable today.

The DARPA funding has literally changed the game by providing the investment necessary to propel prosthetic arms into the current era and beyond. In subsequent posts I will highlight some of the more notable aspects of this report.