Mechanical marvels: Intelligent robots are no longer the stuff of
science fiction
Robots are walking out of science fiction and into everyday life.
Simon Usborne checks the specs of 10 mechanical marvels
Published: 30 May 2007
Talon
For decades the staple of science-fiction films such as Robocop, gun-
toting machines capable of firing at will are now terrifyingly close
to science fact. Last year, South Korea revealed an autonomous robot
guard equipped with a human tracking device and a machine gun, and
the CIA has already used a flying robot called the Predator to launch
a Hellfire missile at a truck full of suspected terror leaders. In
Iraq, robo-recruits that can seek out and destroy improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) are fast becoming a soldier's best friend in
a country where roadside bombs have killed more than 1,300 US troops
since the 2003 invasion. In the past four years, the American
engineering firm Foster Miller has shipped more than 1,100 of its
remote-control Talon robots to Iraq and Afghanistan. The US
Department of Defense plans that by 2015 one-third of its fighting
strength will be composed of robots. "It's only a matter of time
before we see similar police robots moving to the civilian world,"
says Professor Noel Sharkey, a robotics expert at the University of
Sheffield.
BEAR
Rescuing soldiers from the battlefield is hard to do without further
endangering human life, which is why engineers are racing to develop
machines that can navigate rough terrain to extract the injured.
Leading the field is Vecna, a US company based in Maryland. The
company's prototype Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) is
equipped with cushioned hydraulic arms that slide beneath a soldier,
lifting them out of harm's way. Current prototypes work by remote
control but Vecna hopes future models will have a degree of autonomy.
Jonathan Klein, an engineer at Vecna, says the Bear could also have
civilian uses. "It could rescue people trapped in mine collapses or
under the rubble of buildings toppled by earthquakes." A version of
the Bear could also make an appearance in hospitals, where lifting
patients is one of the leading causes of serious injury among nurses.
The company expects to see the Bear deployed by 2011, complete with
its cute head. "I designed it myself," Klein says. "Robots without
heads look grotesque and many that have them look somehow nefarious.
We wanted something that isn't going to scare you half to death."
Robo-nurse
In some Japanese hospitals, robots are already circulating wards as
guides or even drug dispensers. Soon, mechanised "angels" capable of
cleaning floors, or even taking patients' temperatures, could be
swarming around the wards of UK hospitals. Scientists from the
universities of Warwick, Newcastle and Cardiff are taking part in the
EU-funded "IWARD" project and hope to start testing robo-nurses in
three years.
Project leader Thomas Schlegel, from the Fraunhofer Institute in
Germany, says: "Our plan is not to make them do the work of highly
qualified nurses, but to support staff by doing basic tasks such as
dealing with spillages or general cleaning."
Using cameras and proximity sensors, they will eventually patrol
hospitals autonomously, alerting their human colleagues if they spot
a patient lying on the floor, or an unemptied bin.
The robots will also be linked to each other using Wi-Fi, creating a
"swarm" of nurse-bots able to work as a team. If a call comes in to
deal with a particular kind of spillage, the robot with the necessary
attachments will take on the job.
Schlegel admits that "nobody wants to be treated by a robot," but
says robo-nurses can provide an important bedside service. "Say you
have a question for a cardiologist who is working in another hospital
- robots in each place could link doctor and patient and allow them
to have a conversation."
Roomba
Almost 50 years since Rosie the apron-clad robot first made dinner
for the Jetsons, more and more of us are letting robots do the
housework. The top-selling mechanised maid is the Roomba, a vacuum
cleaner that uses bump detectors, dirt sensors and floor scanners to
navigate your sitting room, sucking up dust and dog hair.
Developed by the iRobot Corporation, which also builds a range of
mine-sweeping and reconnaissance robots for the US military, the
latest Roomba has a scheduling function so it can run while you're at
work or in bed. iRobot claims to have sold more than two million
Roombas. The company also makes cleaners to tackle garages, workshops
and swimming pools.
Professor Sharkey, who owns a Roomba, predicts that robots will soon
play a much bigger role in the home. "You could say the home itself
will become one big robot," he says. "You'll be able to communicate
with it from different rooms and it will keep an eye on everything.
When dinner's ready, a message will come up on your TV screen."
Robot Hand
With dozens of intertwined bones, muscles and tendons, and an almost
limitless range of motion, the human hand is a huge robotics
challenge. Early robo-hands were simple pincer affairs - but in a
London workshop, engineers have spent two decades developing a
mechanised hand so dextrous that it can handle eggs, pour cups of tea
and change light bulbs. "It's the most advanced robot hand in the
world," says Hugo Elias, an engineer at the Shadow Robot Company.
"It's the only one that has all the joints humans have and a thumb as
articulate as our own."
The key to the hand's agility is a bundle of 40 lightweight "air
muscles" giving strong yet smooth control. When compressed air enters
a rubber tube in each muscle, it expands, forcing a mesh sheath to
contract. Even smarter are the sensors on the fingers. Made from a hi-
tech rubber, they become conductive when squeezed. By measuring the
current, the hand determines how much resistance an object is giving -
be it a hammer or a strawberry - and uses appropriate force.
Elias says the hand could have a range of uses, from helping the
disabled to bomb disposal. So far, Shadow Robot has sold hands to
universities, and to Nasa. "They asked us to test it by getting it to
operate one of the hooks astronauts use to tether themselves to
spacecraft," Elias says. "They were pretty sure our hand couldn't
open it, but it did it in seconds."
PaPeRo
Granny's out and the baby-sitter's double-booked. No problem - leave
your kids with a childcare robot. It sounds like a recipe for
disaster, but the Japanese computer giant NEC has developed a robot
that promises to be your eyes and ears while you go out.
Switch on PaPeRo - or Partner-type Personal Robot - and it will scoot
around the house tracking the kids, identifying them using a camera
in each eye and face-recognition technology. Ultrasonic sensors allow
it to negotiate furniture and scattered toys while it entertains
children using programmed movements and dances, as well as a 3,000-
word vocabulary. To check up on the little ones, call PaPeRo. He'll
beam live video footage to your mobile phone, and let you have a
conversation with the kids via a network of microphones and speakers.
When you're at home, PaPeRo can connect to the internet wirelessly
and alert you to new e-mails or respond to spoken requests for
weather forecasts, recipes or football scores.
Similar robots are already being used in Japan to care for the
elderly. One robot teddy bear asks its human companion questions,
then, judging by the answer and response time, decides whether to
call a nurse.
Asimo
When engineers at Honda began building robot-humanoids, their first
prototype, EO, consisted of two ungainly legs that took 20 seconds to
take a single, agonising step. More than 20 years later, Asimo, the
latest robot to step out of Honda's labs, not only walks in fluid
strides but can push a trolley, deliver a tray, climb and descend
stairs, and run through a slalom course at up to four miles per hour.
Most recently seen on TV exploring a deserted science museum in an
acclaimed Honda advert, Asimo is the most advanced humanoid robot in
the world. "Any robot can walk in a straight line," says William De
Braekeleer, Asimo's project leader, "but Asimo can predict its next
movement and adjust its centre of gravity with anticipation to
navigate any course. It really is the great achievement in humanoid
robotics."
The company plans to employ the 4ft 3in robot as a receptionist at
one of its research centres. "He will greet visitors, recognise them
and guide them to the correct meeting room," says De Braekeleer.
Asimo could also help Honda with making cars. "The technology is
transferable," says De Braekeleer. "The recognition technology it
uses could be used to develop systems that help cars avoid
collisions."
Pleo
Remember the Tamagotchi, the hand-held digital "pet" that swept the
world's playgrounds in the late 1990s? Well, things have moved on
since schoolchildren rushed home to "feed" electronic keyrings. Pleo
is an intelligent robot dinosaur that "hatches" out of its box and
grows up in front of your eyes.
Its creator, Caleb Chung, who also co-invented the Furby, says his
latest creation is more than a robot toy. "We've tried to make Pleo
realistic enough that the technology becomes transparent, so you're
just dealing with a relationship with a character," he says.
Pleo is programmed to learn how to interact with its owner via 38
touch, sound, light and tilt sensors hidden under its flexible skin.
Fourteen motors allow it to move in fluid steps and exhibit a full
range of "emotions". At first wary of human contact, stroke his head
or teach him tricks and Pleo stretches out his neck and purrs;
neglect him and he might stomp his foot and walk away whining.
Marketed as the world's first robot "capable of showing emotion,"
Pleo is modelled on a week-old Camarasaurus, a dinosaur that roamed
North American and Europe in the late Jurassic period. "If you have a
magic wand, why bring to life a cat or a dog?" asks Chung. "We wanted
to do the impossible - to create something you can't have."
RS Media
As one of the world's leading robotics physicists, British-born Mark
Tilden worked for the US Government's Los Alamos laboratory, for
Nasa, and as a scientific adviser to President Clinton. Now he makes
toys that fart.
"Robots are the last unfulfilled promise of the 20th century," says
Tilden, who has faced accusations of "selling out" from some quarters
of the robotics community. "The toy industry is a natural way to get
them into the world where they can fuel people's imaginations."
And fuel them he has; in three years Tilden, who now heads up
research and development for the Hong Kong toy maker, WowWee, has
sold more than 20 million robots, from bi-pedal dinosaurs to remote
control dragonflies.
But Tilden says his proudest achievement is RS Media, an all-singing
and dancing 23-inch humanoid with multiple personalities. Equipped
with touch, sight and sound sensors, the robot can interact with
humans, track moving objects and even perform martial arts. "We use
one in the office as an interactive mp3 player," says Tilden. "You
can load it with music, which it plays out of speakers in its hands
while dancing in rhythm."
The RS can also show photos and play videos on the screen mounted on
its chest, and it has four interchangeable "personalities", including
an English butler called Service Bot 3000. Users can also link the
robot to a PC and create their own personalities and swap them
online.
Tilden says the technology developed for toys like RS Media could be
used to help care for the elderly, or assist the survivors of natural
disasters. "We're trying to close the gap between fantasy and reality
and make fun robots that are a launch pad to the serious robots
people will need in the future," he says.
Geminoid
Last year, Dr Hiroshi Ishiguro, the director of the Intelligent
Robotics Laboratory at Japan's Osaka University, revealed to an
astonished group of reporters an android that was his spitting image.
Seemingly relaxed in an office chair, Ishiguro's robotic twin, called
Geminoid, was silent at first, but his blinking eyes and slowly
fidgeting shoulders confirmed that he was no waxwork dummy. Then,
scanning the room, the robot opened its mouth and used its master's
voice to introduce itself in polite Japanese. Geminoid is in fact an
incredibly sophisticated puppet. Sitting behind the scenes - or for
an even more eerie effect, right next to his doppelganger - Ishiguro
can remotely control the android using a motion-capture system that
transmits his upper body and face movements to 46 air "muscles"
concealed beneath his robot's latex skin. Dr Ishiguro insists the
Geminoid is more than an expensive exercise in robotic vanity. He
sees a future where people can teach or do business using robot
proxies. "The idea is tele-interaction," he said at the launch. "If I
can access the android online, I don't need to go to work anymore."
