Robotica Exotica

SWORDS ready for field deployment

It isn't exactly autonomous, rather it is a remote controlled ground vehicle. The army has put together the SWORDS program, which takes a Talon EOD remotely piloted vehicle, and places some weapons on board, and is deploying several of them into actual combat. Results from this will have implications for the future of the miliary.

It's easy to humanize the SWORDS (a tendency robotics researchers say is only human) as it moves out of the flashy lobby of an office building and into the cold with nary a shiver. Military officials like to compare the roughly three-foot-high robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

But officials are quick to point out that these are not the autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot shoots only when its human operator presses a button after identifying a target on video shot by the robot's cameras.

"The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder, it's up to half a mile a way," said Bob Quinn, general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc., the Waltham, Mass., company that makes the SWORDS. As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon seeing the robot: "This is my invisibility cloak."

Cassini-Hyugens probe lands on Titan

Congratulations all around to the teams that worked on both the Cassini Spacecraft and the Hyugens probe that successfully parachuted into the Titan atmosphere and is currently relaying information back through the Cassini probe and the Deep Space Network.

Note that these are the first images of the surface of Titan ever seen, as it is covered in clouds. Titan is a moon of Saturn that is approximately the same size as Earth and has an atmosphere of similar thickness.

ESA's Huygens spacecraft has successfully landed on the surface of Titan, project officials said Friday. The probe, which detached from the Cassini spacecraft December 25, entered Titan's upper atmosphere 5:13 am EST (1013 GMT), landing on the surface at about 7:34 am EST (1234 GMT), based on a planned timeline for the mission. Engineers believe the spacecraft successfully descended through the atmosphere and landed on a solid surface because the probe's carrier wave, the spacecraft's only direct transmission to Earth during the encounter, was detected by radio telescopes on Earth during the planned descent and well after landing. Scientific data collected by Huygens was transmitted to the Cassini orbiter as is flew by Titan; it will relay the data to Earth later today. Some initial results may be released later Friday, although a more comprehensive release of data is not expected until Saturday.

See the Hyugens homepage for more information.

Honeywell Micro Air Vehicle

Honeywell has announced the testing of its new micro air vehicle (MAV). This is a ducted fan design with vertical takeoff and landing capability. Usually there are issues in transitioning to horizontal flight and endurance with this type of design. This PDF file of its specifications claims an endurance of 40 minutes at 5000 ft. ASL.

"The flight tests are demonstrating that this aircraft performs as designed and will provide intelligence on enemy activity without risking the lives of human pilots or ground reconnaissance teams," said Vaughn Fulton, Honeywell Unmanned Aerial Systems Program Manager.

Honeywell is developing the aircraft, called the Micro Air Vehicle (MAV), for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of its Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) program.

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Called a ducted fan air vehicle, the MAV flies like a helicopter, using a propeller that draws in air through a duct to provide lift. The MAV's propeller is enclosed in the duct and is driven by a gasoline engine.

A heavy fuel engine variant of the MAV will be available in 2006. The MAV is controlled using Honeywell's micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) electronic sensor technology.

Biomimetic Robots

Stanford Professor Mark Cutkosky has been working on several areas of robotics over the past few years. He gives an interview to the Stanford Daily where he expounds the advantages of biomimetic robots that are modeled after insects.

There are some things that animals can do much better than humans, like climb walls and run very fast. The fastest cockroaches can run 55 body-lengths per second. Even the slower ones can do about 15 body lengths per second. If you could run at 55 body-lengths per second you’d be going about 55 mph.

Also, for the amount of intelligence that we’re actually able to put into small robots, insects are a much better target than mammals — let alone humans — in terms of behaviors and learning.

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Already, some bio-inspired robots are starting to make it into the field. One of our collaborators, Martin Buehler — who was formerly at McGill University and is now heading up a robotics group at Boston Dynamics Inc. — has a version of another hexapod [six-legged robot] called RHex that is being evaluated by the military.