Catching up on the deluge that is my RSS reader lately, I came across this image from APOD of the Caloris basin (also called Caloris Planitia) on Mercury recently snapped by the Mercury Messenger robotic explorer. It’s huge, and one of the largest impact basins from an asteroid-sized object in our solar system. The basin measures over 1,500 km across. The image above is a false color image in order to enhance details not visible in a true color image. The yellowish object dominating the image is obviously the impact crater of the Caloris basin, but the orange spots above denote volcanic activity on Mercury, which is new evidence provided by Messenger that the smooth plains of Mercury are actually lava flows.
I had previously written about Mercury and NASA’s Messenger mission here and here.
The Phoenix Mars mission team released some incredible news on June 20th. The Phoenix Mars explorer, since landing on Mars on May 25th, had definitively established that the white material exposed with its digging tool earlier is in fact frozen water. Phoenix had found water ice just below the Martian regolith. That was a significant part of the mission, and to accomplish it so quickly and efficiently is a big win for NASA, JPL, and the whole mission team. The proof is represented in the image above. If you watch the image you see the white material begin to shrink and disappear. That is called sublimination, which is the transition of an element or compound from solid to gas without the intermediary liquid step. Given the atmospheric conditions on Mars, you are seeing evidence above of the frozen water on mars subliming.
Identifying water ice was the first important step in the mission team’s “follow-the-water” mission framework. Knowing that they are working with water ice now triggers a series of analyses that will help identify the mineral components and chemicals in that water ice, and also look for any organic materials. This investigation will help determine if the conditions just below the Martian surface are conducive to microbial life, and if that life exists or has existed on Mars.
There is a very good chance that drilling will begin in the coastal waters of the United States, and perhaps also places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This brings the possibility of environmental disasters due to accidents and spills much closer to home. There are arguments for and against doing this, and one of the more interesting arguments for allowing the drilling is that the United States has been outsourcing its environmental disasters for too long, and that the drilling off our coasts is inevitable. We have the technology and care for the environment to drill in a way that will minimize environmental impact and address accidents in a fast and efficient manner. I do not really agree with this logic, but knowing that the drilling is going to happen it is good to have technology on our side.
Enter the OSP robot, a concept by product designer Ji-hoon Kim, which is a modular, easily transportable, solar powered, oil spill containment solution. Once deployed the robots autonomously contain the spill with an inflatable barrier quickly minimizing the impact of the oil spill and supporting the successful cleanup and management of the accident by the cleanup teams. Response to a spill with these robots is swift, as they can be quickly deployed from special dispensers on board helicopters or boats:
This is one of many oil spill containment tools that should be investigated, and it would be good to not wait until we are drilling off the coast of the United States to do so. An environmental disaster in Africa or Asia from an oil spill has reverberations throughout the global environment, and establishing and mandating a response protocol would be a very, very good thing.
The Cassini robot explorer, written about here before, will hit the four year mark on June 30th in the relentless pursuit of its prime mission to explore Saturn and its many moons. After June 30th Cassini is operating in bonus territory, as it was not expected that the probe would last this long or work this well. They call this additional time the “extended mission”. Obviously, everyone is ecstatic as the Cassini mission has been profoundly successful in sending us back invaluable information and images of Saturn (like the one above of Saturn’s rings), as well as the moons Titan, Enceladus, Dione, Tethys, Phoebe and Iapetus. In many ways the discoveries regarding Saturn’s moons has largely overshadowed the many, many findings with regards to Saturn itself.
Following the work of Cassini has been like following your favorite band on tour. Nearly every month the mission team has reported more incredible findings or provided another series of stunning images. This page from the mission website catalogs dozens of events and accomplishments. This year alone Cassini has scheduled over a dozen different flybys to allow the use of the craft’s Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UIS), Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS), and Radio Science Subsystem. Cassini is packed with gear, and it is not only amazing that it all is still working as planned, but that it made it there in the first place. Congratulations to the Cassini-Huygens mission team on the four year anniversary.
NASA engineers have been busy testing robotic mobility prototypes for potential use on future missions to the moon and Mars. The engineers, in full astronaut gear, have been putting the machines through their paces on terrain at Moses Lake, Washington that approximates the mobility challenges of navigating the surface regolith of the moon.
The robotic prototypes tested include the twelve wheeled robotic transport pictured above, as well as a six-legged all-terrain vehicle that can carry large payloads, an autonomous drilling rover and a mapping robot. There is an incredibly large and well-shot image gallery of the testing, and the various robotic vehicles, here that is worth viewing. The public was invited to observe, which is further proof of the efforts that NASA is undertaking to engage the public and enlist their enthusiasm. NASA’s relatively recent adoption of social media as a way to create dialog with the public is an additional indicator of a changed view of the role of the public in space exploration.
This image is the result of the Mars Phoenix mission team instructing the robotic arm camera to look under the vehicle. What you are looking at is the surface of Mars, and it shows that the Martian soil has been displaced by the landing thrusters on Phoenix to expose what is most probably ice. The simple action of Phoenix landing on Mars has potentially exposed polar ice directly under the vehicle, ice that was covered by a very loose and thin layer of soil.
There is a rumor that when the mission leaders saw this image the first words uttered were “Holy cow!”
Pretty incredible video of work in robotic prosthetics being done by Dean Kamen and his team. Knowing that prosthetic limbs have not really progressed much, technologically, in the last fifty years it is stunning to see the leaps that Kamen’s team has made. The initial prototype of the robotic arm was completed in one year at the behest of the Department of Defense searching for a solution to soldiers who had suffered the loss of their arms.
Posts lately have been all things solar system, and that is because there is so much going on right now with regards to robotic exploration of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and the their various moons. It is an exciting time to be a space exploration geek. I just came across the above image taken by the ESA’s Venus Express explorer of a vortex occurring in the southern polar region of the planet. This image was captured by Express back in 2006. I also found an excellent image montage of Express approaching Venus that shows some detail in the cloud covering that surrounds Venus.
Venus Express is essentially a reconfiguration of the ESA’s Mars Express explorer technology and left for Venus back in 2005. The goals for Venus Express are to explore the atmospheric composition and circulation on Earth’s closest neighbor, as well as how the atmosphere interacts with the planet’s surface. Venus is definitely inhospitable, with an atmosphere mostly comprised of noxious gasses and an incredibly hot surface temperature. Surprisingly, given the close proximity of Venus, we still know very, very little about the planet. Venus Express is helping to change this.
The Phoenix robotic explorer has been on Mars now for about 27 hours after an incredibly successful entry, descent and landing. It has been very busy. Incredible images are already streaming to Earth, and those of us geeked out by things of this nature are absolutely riveted. I was excited to discover how many people I know were following @MarsPhoenix on Twitter.
Many images are coming back, and most right now are of the explorer itself and the immediate vicinity as the mission managers check systems and get their bearings. The above image of one of the craft’s landing pads is one of my favorites because that image is of the pad of a man-made robotic explorer sitting on the surface of Mars millions of miles away from Earth, and it was taken in the last 24 hours. Astounding. Even more astounding is this video composite of the Martian surface, terrain and horizon taken by Phoenix today.
Earlier this month the European Space Agency posted some high resolution images taken by the ESA Mars Express Orbiter of the ice covered oddity that is Promethei Planum. The images are striking and gorgeous, and depict the seasonal ice coverage of this cratered area that measures as deep as 3,500 meters in places. In the image below on the right is an impact crater, partially covered in ice, that measures roughly 100 km wide and 800 meters deep.
It has been a while since I have posted about robots, so via DangerRoom comes news that we are that much closer to bigger, better, and more stealthy flying robots of death. At least the United States Navy is. We’ve had operational drones and remotely piloted craft that could fire on targets, but within the next year the Northrop Grumman X-47B will take flight, and begin aircraft carrier landing testing a year after that. This is a mean machine, and brings an array of capabilities to bear all from a compact, efficient, and radar resistant form factor. It’s not a small craft, but it is much smaller than all other carrier based aircraft. It’s mission profile reads like a Tom Clancy novel:
Ballistic missle defense
Irregular force attack
“Manhunting”
Strike-coordinated armed reconnaissance
Combat air support
Special operations force support
Air interdiction
Electronic surveillance
SEAD/EW (I have no idea what this means…)
The impetus behind creating this robotic aircraft is to provide the Navy and Marines with a platform that can stay in flight for 50-100 hours, carry 4,500 pounds of ordinance, and perform the toughest missions under the most dangerous of circumstances. Clearly criteria that make a pilotless option priority. Additionally, there are plans to make the airframe compatible with carrying directed energy weapons. That would be lasers.
Catching up on my feeds just now I was saddened to see that Arthur C. Clarke, physicist, author, innovator, futurist, and ardent believer in the potential of humanity, has died. He was 90, so the man had a very decent run. Perhaps his most recognized work was 2001: A Space Odyssey, the movie for which just celebrated its 40th anniversary. He leaves behind an enormous legacy of invention, creativity, art, and inspiration having written over 100 books. Enormous. Few have been so profoundly influential to so many, and managed to do it with such consistent style, usually sporting a satin Nehru jacket and tanned from the beaches of his home in Sri Lanka. For me, Arthur C. Clarke is the Yin to Philip K. Dick’s Yang. A couple great quotes from Clarke in honor of his passing…
Reflecting on his life:
“Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered. I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer.”
A terrific quote on the value of the space program, from 1970:
“The inspirational value of the space program is probably of far greater importance to education than any input of dollars… A whole generation is growing up which has been attracted to the hard disciplines of science and engineering by the romance of space.”
Absolutely stunning imagery of the recent fly-by of Saturn’s moon Enceladus by Cassini presented in a photo animation. You will find little mention of this in the news, and that is mostly because the news does not care. Lost opportunity for the news. We’ve investigated the robotic Cassini probe here before, and it continues to be very, very busy. On March 12th Cassini flew within 30 miles of Enceladus, approaching from above Enceladus’ north pole and thus seeing the moon as a crescent. Some facts on this beautiful moon:
Enceladus is very bright, reflecting nearly 100% of the light that strikes it
This is because we believe it is almost entirely covered in water ice
It’s surface is considered to be geologically young at less than 100 million years old
There is evidence indicating that the interior of the moon may still be liquid
It is about 500 km wide, or roughly the width of the state of Arizona
Enceladus is known as the “geyser moon” because of enormous eruptions
These are created by the release of energy caused by frictional geothermal heating
More on Enceladus and Cassini’s observations here, here, and here.
It would seem that reality does map nicely to the various themes of science fiction:
“I’ve made the case that we will have both the hardware and the software to achieve human level artificial intelligence with the broad suppleness of human intelligence including our emotional intelligence by 2029.”
That is both fascinating and definitely something to ponder. I had imagined it taking us longer to reach human level AI as 2029 is only just over twenty years away. In the article Kurzweil goes on to say that humans and machines will eventually merge and become indistinguishable from one another. He does not say whether or not this will be by choice.
I have posted about telepresence and the workplace a few times before, but this is a military application that is incredibly interesting. The interface between robots and operators has proved to be a bottleneck in effectiveness. This is partly because robotic technology has advanced at a rate faster then our interface and control technologies, and partly because the performance demands being put on robotics have scaled significantly in a very short period of time. This is beginning to change, and DARPA is again at the forefront of driving that change. The video above is of the telepresence “Head Aimed Remote Viewer” (HARV), and it offers tremendous improvements in speed, navigation, and effectiveness. The Pentagon has very quickly become a driver of innovation in robotics.Story via DangerRoom
2007 was a terrifically important year in the field of robotics. It was a year of new accomplishments in mobility, application, and the continuation of exponential increases in functional robotic populations. Take note, we are riding a technological wave that will dramatically impact our collective futures for the better, and in some ways for the worse, I surmise. The forces behind the continuous improvement and innovation within robotics are gaining tremendous momentum, and the associated tremendous budgets. This is not just about the military, either. Advances in robotics are happening globally and are sponsored by both public and private enterprise. It will be interesting to see what 2008 brings.
There was an excellent article late last month at Scientific American that summarizes well some of the incredible accomplishments and developments in robotics from the past year.
Granted, that image above is from a certain 1970’s science fiction moment burned in the minds of those of us old enough to remember, and actually has nothing to do with this post. But this does. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are working to eventually create microscopic robots that can swarm together allowing them to change shape into almost any form by clinging together. They are testing these strategies on groups of larger, pocket-sized robots that allow rapid prototyping of the simulations and control approach enabling the researchers to quickly refine and evolve the swarming abilities of the robots. One set of robots uses electromagnetic forces to move and connect themselves in patterns, to communicate, and to share power. Check out this video of the test robots in action:
Fascinating, and given our propensity for making science fiction become reality I imagine that this is a robotics technology we will see at some time in the next couple of decades.
This story, via Danger Room, immediately made me think of this:
I have posted previously about the planet Mercury, so I was excited to learn that the robotic Mercury research spacecraft Messenger had sent back it’s first image of the planet, the first since Mariner 10 visited Mercury 30 years ago. Messenger stands for the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemsitry, and Ranging mission.The image above was was taken on January 11 as Messenger approached Mercury (at just over 1 million miles from the planet). Scheduled for Monday is a pass at about 125 miles over Mercury’s surface. The plan is for Messenger to make two more close passes (in October 2008 and September 2009) before settling into orbit in March of 2011 and initiating its mission of mapping the surface of Mercury in detail. And in color.
Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system, and the maneuvering that Messenger will have to do (see graphic below from the Messenger website) to comfortably settle into an observational orbit is complex. It involves the three flybys mentioned to help the craft build up enough speed to match Mercury as it settles into orbit, called “Mercury Orbit Insertion,” or MOI. Messenger will also use a series of trajectory corrections and deep space maneuvers achieved by the controlled firing of its thrusters.
I recently read through the Defense Department’s Unmanned Systems Roadmap: 2007-2032 and found it absolutely fascinating. We are watching our military evolve right before our eyes in ways that are quite paradigmatic, and will most likely determine the nature of the next century of war fighting. I have frequently posted on interesting developments with respect to robotics on this blog, and have pointed out before the significance of the Defense Department having a cohesive and longterm strategy as it relates to robotics, that the innovation pendulum has already begun to swing from research institutions and private industrial ventures to the military industrial complex. This would not be the first time this has happened, as in the last century, for a time, innovations in aircraft, communications, GPS, and even materials technology was largely driven by military determination, budgetary abundance, and need. The graphic above lays out the unmanned systems capabilities by status and military branch deployment, and it is comprehensive. A similar graphic from five or six years ago would have had about 20% of this graphic’s population. In great detail the report catalogs current capabilities contrasted against specific needs that require further research and development as the investment in unmanned systems technology continues to grow. In effect, it is indeed a detailed roadmap that lays out the developmental action plan to meet the Pentagon’s growing needs for robotic systems of all types. These needs are:
I. Reconnaissance and Surveillance
Expressed as the number one priority, being able to accurately monitor areas of interest in detail while maintaining covertness is highly desirable. Systems in use are already successful, but require standardization and interoperability to better support the increasing diversity of Defense Department users.
II. Target Identification and Designation
Lacking as a current substantial capability, the ability to quickly and positively identify military targets in real-time is a definite need. Combined with reduced latency and improved precision munitions, this capability would further the effort to minimize the risk assumed by “manned systems” while offering better operational effectiveness.
III. Counter-Mine Warfare
Sea mines continue to be a significant threat, and since WWII have caused more damage to US vessels than all other weapons combined. Combine this with the constantly changing IED threat facing soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is a real need for improved and superior mine countering technology. Further development of unmanned systems to identify, mark, remove and or destroy both land and sea mines is a significant need.
IV. Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosive (CBRNE) Reconnaissance
The report expresses two substantial needs related to CBRNE, both the ability to efficiently find weapons and to accurately survey affected areas that have been compromised by them.
The roadmap is the result of more than 18 months of work between the Department of Defense, the services and other military and government agencies. While past reports focused primarily on unmanned aircraft systems, there have been significant successes with test deployments of other supporting unmanned systems and the new document subsequently addresses land-and maritime-operated unmanned systems, as well. It is the DoD’s determination that the integration of all the robotic systems are the future of DoD integrated operations from both a systems perspective and also from a joint-service perspective. Integration and interoperability are keys to maximizing the utility and effectiveness of the various systems discussed. The report goes on to elaborate on a series of goals as it relates to unmanned systems:
- Improve effectiveness of unmanned systems through improved integration & collaboration
- Achieve greater commonality and interoperability of systems, controls & communications
- Develop standards that support safe operations & integration with manned systems
- Implement standardized protective & safety controls for unmanned systems deploying arms
- Utilize rapid prototyping, rapid deployment & real world testing to fast track development
The report is extensive, at nearly 200 pages, but the chart below lays out robotics/unmanned systems capabilities timeline for the next 25 years. As I stated previously, by 2030 the military as we know it will cease to exist and we will have a very, very different operational force.
In the very near future, possibly as close as 2015, oil and gas drilling platforms at sea may be run by robots controlled and monitored remotely by humans safely ensconced somewhere on land. In a laboratory financed by Norsk Hydro, a simulated robotic drilling platform already exists to test systems and to prototype operations. Offshore oil and gas drilling is dangerous not only due to the confined space in which the heavy drilling equipment must operate, but also due to the variable weather conditions that can make human operation of these platforms problematic. And costly. Employing robotics to run the platforms will eliminate the risk to humans of running the platform, and also greatly reduce the cost associated with human operation. The insurance alone will be a tremendous savings. Additionally, robots will be much less susceptible to the extremes of weather and encounter fewer interruptions in operation. Though we’re still drilling for fossil fuels, this seems to be a much smarter and safer way to go about it. The utilization of robotics in an application such as this seems a logical extension of the technology, and a smart combination of automated robotic manufacturing with the use of remotely controlled robotics in high-danger scenarios such as urban warfare.
Clearly, we are very much at the beginning of the application of robotics technology in a diversity of industries, and this is partly because robotics technology is still in its infancy. But the technology advances exponentially, and we will begin to see robotics used in ways analogous to the automated oil platforms like mining, agriculture, firefighting and construction.
Nissan is determined to stake a claim on technological advancement and the future of the automobile. To this end, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn recently set the R+D goal of launching 15 new technologies per year beginning in 2009. This effort will go a great distance to instill in Nissan a focus on innovation and the opportunity to very strategically explore and re-investigate how our cars interact with us, and how we interact with our cars.
One technology that Ghosn highlighted, and believes holds significant promise, is that of the in-car robotic assistant/companion, called the “Robotic Agent.” Ghosn feels that there are major opportunities for Nissan with the advancement of robotic technology, and has previewed concept cars, check out the Pivo2, that hint at how this may manifest itself. Despite the potentially enormous distraction to already enormously distracted drivers that this may present, Ghosn believes that a personal robot, able to chat with drivers while highlighting driving conditions, or offer advice based on traffic reports, will eventually make it to a production vehicle.
I know I ask the obvious, but what happened to driving being about simply focusing on the road? As much as I adore my personal robotic assistant I have absolutely no desire to chat with him while driving. He should be balancing my bank account and picking up my dry cleaning during that time.
Don’t for one second think that I feel anything but optimism with regards to the increasing prominence of robots in our lives. Yeah, they’re seemingly everywhere… but they can be so damn cute. And helpful. This post is a semi-comprehensive robot survey, a high level review of just how thoroughly robotics has become relied upon to provide a diversity of services. Services either undesirable or considered potentially harmful to humans. Services that, in some cases, are just impossible for humans to perform. How have robots had their presence expanded? By us. Voluntarily. The following list is of many of the places you can find robots in our world today working very effectively, and without emotion:
From the unbelievably mundane to the incredibly dangerous, robots are there and in many cases have been for years. Applications of robotics technology is diverse, and this diversity is creating momentum for the investigation into increasingly complicated applications to complete increasingly complicated tasks… on our behalf.
If you think that I have left out any important robots, please let me know and I will update the survey.
This story started back in 1979 when the robotic space explorer Pioneer 11 did a fly-by of Saturn. This was followed a year later by Voyager I, and again in 1981 by Voyager II. These craft sent back primitive but compelling images, obviously far beyond anything we had yet seen from Earth, that created more questions than answers and compelled a generation to learn more. Now, Pioneer and the Voyager twins only captured images as they slingshot through the solar system on their way out as emissaries of humanity, so to speak. It would not be until 2004 that we would again visit Saturn, and this was when the robotic probe Cassini settled into Saturn’s orbit, the first craft to do so. Officially named the Cassini-Huygens, it is an international collaboration between three space agencies (NASA, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency) with 17 nations contributing to the building of the craft. There is an army of 250 scientists throughout the world studying the telemetry being beamed back to Earth. One of them is Carolyn Porco, a planetary scientist and leader of the Cassini mission who gave an excited, emotional, and amazing presentation at TED earlier this year. Definitely watch it. She showed some amazing images of Saturn, like the one here:
This Image was taken by Cassini as Saturn eclipses and is backlit by the sun. Stunning. Her focus, though, quickly moved to the moons surrounding Saturn and what Cassini-Huygens had discovered. The moon Titan stole the show, as Cassini dropped the Huygens probe to the surface to end decades of speculation of what that surface might be like. It has been a successful mission, and Huygens has sent back incredible imagery of an environment not that much unlike Mars, but with characteristics also quite Earth-like. Carolyn’s excitement by the implications of the imagery was readily apparent. The image below is one of my favorites taken by Cassini and is Saturn’s moon Tethys. That large crater that dominates the image is called Odysseus and it is about 400km across, roughly 1/25th of Tethys’ surface. On exactly the other side of Tethys is a series of large trenches cut into the moon’s surface and these were most likely the result of the impact that created the Odysseus crater. That’s cosmological drama.
Some intersting facts about Cassini-Huygens and Saturn to drop into conversation this week:
- The total cost of the Cassini mission will be about $3.27 billion ($2.6 billion from the U.S.)
- More than 5000 people worldwide have worked on or contributed to the Cassini mission
- Saturn averages about 890 million miles distance from Earth
- Cassini traveled nearly 2.2 billion miles to get to Saturn slingshotting off other planets
- Traveling at the speed of light you could make it to Saturn in 84 minutes
- Cassini took six years and eight months to reach Saturn
- On the way it flew by and took images of Earth, Venus, and Jupiter
- The atmosphere of Saturn is primarily hydrogen and helium
- Saturn is a gas giant (made up mostly of gas) and is less dense than water
- That means that in a large enough swimming pool, Saturn would float
- Saturn has a core made up mostly of rock and ice with a radius of about 3700 miles
- At its poles Saturn exhibits auroras similar to those on Earth
Weeks ago I posted about the first deployment of armed robots into urban combat in Iraq with the goal of actually replacing their human counterparts in the worst of situations. These modularly armed robots, dubbed SWORDS, represent both a tactical and technological paradigmatic shift for the US military. Tactical in that the Pentagon did not seem so keen on robot warriors not so long ago, and technological insofar as once the Pentagon, with the foresight of DARPA, suddenly discovered the value of robotic soldiers they began assigning generous budgets, contracts, and programs to move things along expeditiously. SWORDS was deployed around three months ago, maybe as long as six, and we are already seeing the platform “improved” upon. Naturally, with robotics technology the Pentagon would be remiss to not employ continuous improvement… and so we already have the next generation (pictured above and below) of semi-autonomous, modularly armed robotic soldiers ready for deployment.
Improvements on this military platform, from Foster-Miller, include enhanced friendly fire avoidance and more powerful weaponry. From the video, it also seems to have more fluid and precise motion coupled with improved speed. All of this to say, as we continue to discuss the state of robotics here on Schneiderism, we are consistently seeing the gravity of innovation move from research institutions and industry to the military. This compresses the improvement and advancement cycle for robotics technology, as the Pentagon controls significant budgets and resources to maximize any given technology. The upside is that we will see exponential developments in robotics, especially as it relates to autonomy, over the next few years. The downside is that these developments will be biased toward military aims for the foreseeable future. Honestly, it would be irresponsible to predict how this shift in innovation focus will play out, but I think it is safe to say that five years from now we will be looking at a dramatically different range of tactical options for the US military than we would have thought to be such an imminent reality seven years ago.
Though you may mistake the image above to be that of a bedpan of the future, it is in fact a telepresence robot from the consumer robotics company, iRobot. It is called the “ConnectR,” and described by iRobot as a “virtual visiting robot.” Not long ago we investigated the homegrown telepresence robot IvanAnywhere, and the potential for that technology in the workplace. IvanAnywhere was created in a garage, so to speak, by inspired and creative tinkerers. iRobot now takes the concept of telepresence to an entirely new level, by mass producing the technology, and making it incredibly accessible. This is completely in alignment with their mission of creating the “robot home,” but I think that is an incredibly limiting way to review this technology as a device such as ConnectR has potential in a diversity of non-home applications. ConnectR allows for a virtual presence by enabling control of the robot via WiFi. It utilizes live video and audio with the built in camera that can zoom into a high resolution mode for reading text. Remarkable. You can also communicate and speak to your audience through ConnectR, and even display your mood by controlling an LED light.
All of that may sound unimpressive, but it is actually quite amazing. You will be able to purchase a telepresence robot (it launches in 2008) off the shelf of your local robot store and then be in two places at once. I am excited to see creative uses of this technology in the workplace, and guarantee that we will see a proliferation of telecommuters now leveraging telepresence. When ConnectR launches next year it is expected to sell for $499. There are innumerable times that I have dreamed of this technology.
In 1995 Neal Stephenson published “The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer.” This book is excellent and still, twelve years later, prescient. It presaged, in an eerily descriptive and accurate manner, many of the technologies that are either commonplace today or under intense research and development with hopes of eventually becoming commonplace. Specifically, Stephenson elaborated on the ubiquitousness of nanotechnology, expressed as a wide variety of miniature, microscopic robots and machines that fulfill an incredible diversity of uses… to the extent that some cities have entire impenetrable defensive grid “immune systems” comprised of networked nanomachines that can defend against air pollution, air borne viruses, and criminals. This is only one of many impressive aspects of the story, but it should be noted how thoroughly Stephenson intertwined nanotechnology with our own existence. In 1995 this was incredible, other worldly, and seemingly unreachable. Actually, not so unreachable. Nanotechnology would work its way onto the evening news and into our newspapers before the year 2000. Today, it is a major technological force that receives funding largesse, and for some is a panacea.
About the same time that the concept of nanotechnology was going mainstream, researchers were working on the idea of “smart dust.” In 1999, James Flint wrote of smart dust:
“It relies on the convergence of three technologies: digital circuitry, laser-driven wireless communications, and something called MEMS (Micro ElectroMechanical Systems) to pack enough equipment into a space no more than one or two cubic millimeters in size.”
The concept of smart dust was conceived by researchers Kris Pister and Randy Katz of UC Berkeley. Both are pioneers of ubiquitous computing and the development of networked motes, or small sensor driven and task linked robotic devices. In 2000, Pister wrote of this technology:
“In 2010 everything you own that is worth more than a few dollars will know that it’s yours, and you’ll be able to find it whenever you want it. Stealing cars, furniture, stereos, or other valuables will be unusual, because any of your valuables that leave your house will check in on their way out the door, and scream like a troll’s magic purse if removed without permission (they may scream at 2.4 GHz rather than in audio).”
Beyond ensuring that your stuff stays your stuff, this technology has unreal potential. For medical technologies alone, smart dust could create a revolution. Then, there are the military and security applications (enter Neal Stephenson). The internet has clearly demonstrated the power of the network, virtually. Smart dust has the potential to bring this same power of connection into a physical manifestation, ideally in a manner that is benevolent and not entirely defined by surveillance. Applications of this technology are already being used, albeit still by motes and not yet on a nanoscale… but if we have learned anything over the past 20 years it is that miniaturization can happen very, very quickly. You will find successful use of networked motes being used in applications like monitoring the micro climates in wine vineyards and for seismic monitoring along fault lines. Seems innocuous, but back in 1999 Pister himself seemed excited, when quoted by James Flint in a piece for Telepolis, saying that…
“Considering the military arena, Smart Dust may be deployed for stealthy monitoring of a hostile environment, e.g. for verification of treaty compliance. [With] acoustic vibration or magnetic field sensors [it] could detect the passage of vehicles … [it] could be used for perimeter surveilliance, or to detect the presence of chemical or biological agents on the battlefield.”
Anybody who has read Isaac Asimov’s 1950 collection of short stories “I, Robot”is going to immediately understand where I am going with this post. In that collection was the short story “Runaround,” originally written in 1942, that provided some unbelievable foreshadowing to our present reality. By way of review, the biggest take-away from that story was the immutable Three Laws of Robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human being to be harmed.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by a human being, except where those orders come into conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as this does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
“The population of robots in the United States is growing by 30 percent a year, compared to a human population growth rate of only 2 percent annually, according to the World Future Society. The society said there will be 35,000 robots in the United States by 1990.”
So we have Asimov in 1942 eloquently providing a cautious warning of our technological future, and in 1984 we are already seeing predictions of robot population growth outpacing humans in the United States by a factor of 15 times. Believe me, it is more now and at the rate robot populations are increasing we face a reality where there will be more of them than there are of us most probably in my lifetime. That’s interesting to think about. I am not going to waste your time with a parade of lines from science fiction movies or 1960’s television. I am going to lay out some facts regarding robot populations, and projections, that definitely gave me pause… and cause for concern. This in spite of the fact that I am fascinated by robots and optimistic about their relationship with us.
Japan is the best place to start. Japanese companies are far and away the fastest innovators and hardest drivers of robotics technologies. This is partly driven by the reality that their population is shrinking, facing a rapid increase in the elderly and a depleted younger generation not sufficient to replace them in the workforce. The current hope is that robots will mitigate this deficiency in labor force replacement. Back in 2003 410,000 of the world’s 720,000 working robots (around 57%) were in Japan. That is just the “working” robots. The worldwide general robotic population in 2003 was well in excess of 1,000,000. Today, the number of robots in Japan is closer to 40% of the global population, but only because the rest of the world is racing to keep pace. Robotics was, and continues to be, a priority long-term economic strength for the Japanese. You could say that they are the vanguard. During 2003, Honda alone spent in excess of $100 million just to develop the humanoid robot “Asimo,” the goal not being to sell Asimo as a consumer product, but to focus technologies into a prototype to test capabilities, to test limits… and filter them into subsequent products and begin refining for later iterations. A proof of concept for the inception of an intelligent service robotics platform. By 2010 it is anticipated that intelligent service robotics will be a market in excess of $30 billion for Japan. In 2005, it was just over $2 billion. That is a growth market. That is momentum.
This is where concern enters the picture. Robotics are hot everywhere, but Japan is the hot engine at the moment. That engine is posting exponential growth in the market, and paradigmatic shifts in the technologies. There is really no way that we can accurately project where we will be in 2010, 2015 or 2020 both in terms of technological development and in terms of overall robotic populations. If you spend any time researching current robot populations you will be hard pressed to yield any relevant information after 2005. I believe this is because things are happening so quickly. We are definitely seeing this with the deployment of military robotic technologies by the U.S. military. In 2000 robotics were hardly on the agenda at the Pentagon, now it commands enormous R&D budgets and sits at the top of yearly acquisition priorities (in the thousands of robots) for every branch of the military. In 2002 the Pentagon was still debating the virtues of self-propelled artillery. But I digress. In Japan alone you have a nation that is aligning their future with the future of robots. On the one hand, that is truly and genuinely aimed at serving the needs of humanity. On the other, it is what seems to be a rush into a technological arena that is yet undefined, and very much uncharted territory. This brings us back to Asimov’s three laws, which seem almost trite, but are actually of increasing importance as we set about building this semi-autonomous, potentially fully, or even quasi-autonomous workforce. As researchers expend greater effort trying to create robots that develop an autonomous approach to space, time and action we should also expend greater effort understanding what the possible implications of this may mean for humanity. Both good and bad. I am not being alarmist, but advocate for serious consideration by our societies around these issues. Think back to 1990. Think back to 2000. Could you have ever anticipated that we would be facing the situations we face today as they relate to technology, geo-politics, religion and the environment? We face similarly asymmetrical unknowns now, but with implications intensified by our own progress.
I love it when categories intersect. Like design and astrophysics, or as in this instance… robots and the workplace of the future. It makes for such fertile subject matter.
We’ve all imagined being able to work without physically having to be at work. Different from telecommuting or working from a home office, I mean having a presence at work that is not actually you. I believe that I actually think about this every day. Perhaps you’ve imagined a virtual avatar, or maybe thought about having yourself cloned. Both may be viable options at some point in the future (and Herman Miller is probably already researching both), but a software programmer in Canada has beaten everyone to reality. Ivan Bowman works from home, which is 800 miles from his office. Previously, he telecommuted and would be the disembodied voice sitting on the conference table. In some ways, this worked well, but not having an ability to interact properly with his coworkers, to look them in the eye and see their facial expressions, was making it difficult to understand nuance, and sometimes intent.
Ivan now uses a “telepresence” robot, a creative combination of technologies, that allows him to be present at meetings, engage in discussion, and “move” around the office environment physically. All of this occurs while Ivan sits in his underwear on his couch hundreds of miles of away. The robot, built by co-worker Ian McHardy, is made from a wireless webcam, microphone, flat panel monitor, speakers mounted on an armature at about eye level and attached to a four-wheeled chassis. He controls it from home, and moves the robot about the office almost as if he were there in person. The robot is him. Ivan could be a brain in a jar somewhere, as far as his co-workers are concerned. He can cruise the halls, visit people in their offices, and look people in the eye. Sort of. To date, this solution appears to be working very, very well for all involved… and has brought much attention to Ivan. Actually, it has brought attention to the virtual Ivan, named “IvanAnywhere”.
This robot represents an important direction in the future of work, in the ways we work, and how we interact. Having a dynamic, mobile virtual presence in the workplace can create all sorts of opportunities for both employees and employers. Think about the difficulty in attracting talent in a particular office due to geographical location. That would be a non-issue. Think about the challenges, due to changed immigration laws and regulations, in company’s abilities to retain foreign residents as staff. They can now work from their home country. Think about the efficiencies this could yield in the physical space that makes up the office environments we work in. If even a small number of people work via telepresence robotics there is a savings in the needed square feet for an office space. That alone has benefits to company overhead, energy usage, waste, and pollution. Could this technology actually be categorized as sustainable? I would argue that it can.
Naturally, this all is a long way off, but is it important that an individual at one company took such an interesting and innovative approach to addressing issues that matter in the workplace. That the potential scale of this approach has so many additional benefits is only supporting of our work realities moving more in this direction over time.
I could not wait to post about the cute, cuddly little yellow robot pictured above. This is partly because of the the last few robotics posts being about the appropriation of robotics technology by the military for, you know, killing people and such. But there is so much more to what robotics offers beyond being another weapons platform. I was excited to post this also partly because of a post over at our friend The Acme Siren about robots and music. Allow me to introduce Keepon, the name of the cute yellow bugger up there in the photo.
First, a little on biomorphic robotics, a sub-discipline of robotics focused on emulating the mechanics, sensor systems, computing structures and methodologies used by animals. In short, this is the science of building robots inspired by the principles of biological systems. Sounds simple, but obviously it’s not. We “animals” are immensely complex and high maintenance organisms, and as advanced as electronics, processors and robotics might be it is still a challenge to make them more like us. I suppose that is why so many robots still look like wheelbarrows and vacuum cleaners. Researchers involved in biomorphic robotics believe that identifying the underlying rhythm in human communications may help robots to interact in ways that are more natural and acceptable to humans, and less like the dominant overlords they are sure to become.
Keepon was introduced earlier this year and is the result of collaboration between two robotics researchers from different sides of the Pacific, Marek Michalowski at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, and Hideki Kozima of the National Institute of Communications Technology in Japan. Their work was to synchronize the movements of this robot with sound, with rhythm and ultimately with music in an effort to make robots seem less like robots, and perhaps more like cute little yellow anthropomorphic buggers. Anyway, we all recognize that dancing is an engaging activity, it is disarming and fun to both watch and to participate in. Marek and Hideki concluded that the same might well work for robots and make them seem more disarming and fun. You be the judge, but please check out Keepon dancing to Spoon’s “Don’t You Evah”.
There are more videos with Keepon shaking it in the name of research.
This story has already been everywhere and I meant to post about it last week, but have been inundated at work and sadly… Schneiderism takes a back seat to the rest of my life.I looked at my draft post again this morning and thought there was an important perspective, and one I’ve not seen yet approached in the media, on the deployment of heavily armed robots to combat situations that warrants investigation.
First, a summary of the details…The story involves the first armed robots being deployed in Iraq for use in urban combat situations where human soldiers would be dangerously exposed to snipers, ambush, and roadside explosive devices. The robots can be armed with a mix of weaponry, including high-powered M249 machine guns, grenade launchers and automatic shotguns. The robots are called SWORDS, an acronym that stands for “Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System”. Presently, the robots are remotely controlled by human operators either on site or located at a distant support base. Soon, though, and reference the previous post about the autonomous robots being tested by the British Military, the armed robots discussed here will be fully automated. According to an interview on CNET with Chief Army Scientist Thomas Killion, this is the ultimate goal of the military robotics program. Said Killion in that interview, “the FCS [Future Combat Systems] program is demonstrating semiautonomous vehicles where they can do a lot of planning and execution on their own and they really only have to essentially call home to a soldier that’s controlling it when it needs additional guidance.”
The realization of modern science fiction aside, this marks serious progress in the field of robotics… and unfortunately this innovation is being driven by the military. No doubt, these robots will save lives. Saving lives is a very, very good thing regardless of your stand on the war in Iraq. No doubt these robots will also take lives, and therein lies the rub.
Robotics is a major human undertaking, and one that creates as much optimism as it does dread, concern and fear. Robotics and AI programs driven by science, by engineering, and by academics seek to use robotics as a way to address human needs. There are enormous implications for huge segments of our society not normally served by technology, or not normally those to access it or to seek it out. Think about the robotic benefits to the elderly or the differently abled? Think about the implications of robotics to commerce and logistics? Really, the ways that they can enhance our lives are only limited by our imagination. The reality that many of the advancements in robotics are now under the aegis of DARPA or the Pentagon saddens me only because this means that essentially they will be the first to benefit from the latest advancements in the field. Nothing new, there, really. But in the field of robotics so much has been driven by erstwhile humanitarian focused goals. This is a tedious distraction.
I think the fact that the military is beginning to increasingly utilize robots for some of its dirty work can officially be filed under “BORING.” We’ve been hearing about pilotless drones that can fire Hellfire missiles for what feels like forever. We’ve been hearing about bomb disposal robots since S.W.A.T was a popular television show (and that is a long freaking time). Quick, if you have no idea what S.W.A.T is, go to YouTube for this retro enjoyment. That was such a cool show.
So, clearly, robots are not new on the battlefield. But this story is. The UK’s Ministry of Defence is taking things further with its goal to bring autonomous, information-gathering robots to urban warfare situations. You read that correctly:
Autonomous robots in warfare situations… Autonomous robots.
Now, that is science fiction coming to an urban area near you. These technologies will be in testing over the next few years, but the UK MoD hopes to develop robots that can identify potential snipers, enemy vehicles and other human threats, with a minimum of human guidance, and then report that information back to ground troops gearing up for an assault. The robots being developed include miniature unmanned planes and tiny helicopters equipped with high-definition cameras that will work in combination with ground units utilizing radar and thermal detection. They won’t be arming these robots just yet, which is probably very, very wise of them.
