Robots Grow Up, Branch Out

The PackBot doesn't look anything like C-3PO of Star Wars fame, or even the loose-limbed robot from the 1960s television show Lost in Space. But unlike its on-screen counterparts, the PackBot plays an active role in modern military activities as a reconnaissance vehicle and ordinance disposal expert, protecting human soldiers from exposure to hazardous situations.

The PackBot was just one of the innovative robots on display last week at the Emerging Robotics Technologies and Applications Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Science-fiction fans might be disappointed in the progress of robotics to date, but companies are starting to realize what can be accomplished using robots and are looking to cash in.

U.S. forces are using PackBots in Afghanistan and Iraq operations, although IRobot isn't sure exactly how they are being used, says Colin Angle, chief executive officer of the Burlington, Massachusetts, company that manufactures the PackBot.

The machines' primary function is to detect and dispose of bombs and other explosive devices, but many special operations teams use the robot for undisclosed missions, Angle says.

A PackBot costs anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 depending on the size and configuration, Angle says. An operator can control the PackBot via a special laptop or a device as small as a PDA over an 802.11 wireless connection.

The PackBot navigates using two parallel tracks, similar to a tank. A robotic arm about 5 feet long extends from the PackBot's base and can be raised or lowered by the remote operator. The arm has a "gripper" that can pick up objects as small as a penny, and an adjustable camera that gives the operator a view of the PackBot's surroundings.

Household Help

While the PackBot is designed for hostile environments, the other big seller in IRobot's product line needs only dodge the living room sofa, or maybe the family cat.

The company sold "hundreds of thousands" of the Roomba self-directing vacuum cleaner last year, Angle says. With $200, and the push of a button, unmotivated house cleaners can set the Roomba free to suck up dirt, pet hair, and whatever else is lying under the coffee table.

Roomba uses an 8-bit processor and a sophisticated multithreaded operating system to process the flood of location data gathered by infrared and "bump" sensors that help the unit determine where it is in a given room, Angle says.

It gently bumps into obstacles like couches or tables to ascertain its position, and is able to determine where it has traveled within a room through an artificial intelligence program developed by IRobot, Angle says.

The success of products like PackBot and Roomba has other companies looking to build and develop new robots. Those companies will need inexpensive and easy-to-implement building blocks to get started, and many of those components can already be found in a PC, says Richard Brown, associate vice president of marketing with Via Technologies in Taipei.

Via's Mini-ITX motherboard is the engine behind robots, called PC-Bots, built by White Box Robotics. These robots are designed to appeal to PC enthusiasts who like to build their own systems. Via's Mini ITX board allows them to plug in a low-power processing board based on the widely used x86 instruction set so they can concentrate on building applications for their robots, Brown says.

In the PC industry, "white-box manufacturers" are distributors that sell inexpensive systems without a brand name, mostly to small businesses and consumers in the local area. Individually, these vendors make up an extremely small portion of the market, but collectively they are responsible for a larger piece of the market than dominant companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard.

Via and White Box Robotics think the same approach can be applied to the robotics market as it grows, Brown says. The popularity of devices such as Roomba and Sony's Aibo robot dog point to the beginnings of consumer demand for robotic devices, even if those devices don't resemble the dreams of science fiction authors 40 years ago, he says.

"We see a new market here. All the elements are coming into place; it just needs mature hardware," Brown says.

Hitting the Road

A high-profile robotics competition took place over the weekend in the California desert. A total of 25 teams built unmanned robotic vehicles to compete in a race from outside Barstow, California to a location over the Nevada border near the town of Primm.

The annual Grand Challenge is sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Each year it offers a $1 million prize for the team whose robot crosses the finish line first; this year, none of the entries made it that far.

The vehicles must self-navigate across the desert from checkpoint to checkpoint, and must detect and avoid obstacles such as ditches or fences rather than climbing over them, according to the rules.