Robots On the Job

Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Randy Southerland

It will be a long time before the human security guard is replaced by the mechanical kind. Just as the public long ago gave up on the idea of “Rosie” the robotic maid (from “The Jetsons”) doing their housework, none of us is likely to see the worrying C-3PO of “Star Wars” appointed director of security.

Yet mobile, mechanized and increasingly intelligent platforms are making inroads into security arenas. Thanks to technology that enables them to make decisions based on individual situations — along with sensors and software that allow these metal and plastic cops to handle a much wider range of situations — robots are finally beginning to make headway into corporate and industrial settings.

Of course, as robots have become better and cheaper, companies are increasingly able to justify replacing humans with machines for some tasks.

From military to civilian

Robots tend to fall into two categories — remote controlled and autonomous. One becomes an extension of a human controller while the other functions on its own, following a programmed set of tasks. The rapidly expanding military market favors the remote-controlled robot, where it becomes an extension of a soldier — who can direct the robot to disarm a roadside bomb in Iraq, for example.

“In essence they are just like the remote control car that your kid uses,” says Jeanne Dietsch, CEO and co-founder of MobileRobots Inc., Amherst, N.H. “You might use them in the Jeanne Dietsch, CEO and co-founder of MobileRobots Inc., Amherst, N.H. “You might use them in the commercial sector for emergency response or in some hazardous environments where they are appropriate, but they need to have some kind of wired or wireless communication with the person who is driving them around.”

The origin of most advances in robotics can be traced to government and military needs. “Everything we have right now on the civilian market came from the military market once,” says Benjamin Stengl, head of corporate communications for Berlin-based Robowatch Technologies GmbH.

A good example of this development can be found in the Holy Grail of private industry robots — the self-controlled autonomous robot. The first attempts to create a robot that could act on its own without direct human control occurred at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., during the late 1970s. Since that time, NASA, the military and other government agencies have worked toward developing more automated intrusion detection programs. These developments have filtered down to the private sector through programs such as the Reagan Administration's government-to-industry privatization efforts.

Government and military venues have been the testing ground for robot technology. In many instances, advances in software and hardware achieved in government labs or on the battlefield have meant better solutions for the private sector.

Robots everywhere

Robots are used in many different environments — ranging from laboratory clean rooms to industrial warehouses and chemical plants. They are needed most in remote locations where it is difficult or expensive to maintain a human presence.

Robot builders provide platforms onto which a variety of sensors and detection devices are mounted to provide greater utility. Third-party providers working in conjunction with the robot companies typically build these devices.

Recent models now carry devices such as an active smoke detector that can gather smoke from above the unit and check for particulates. A surveillance camera can provide images to a standard security system and can be set to take snapshots of the area around the platform.

“We have a sprinkler detector on top of the robot,” Dietsch says. “The typical application of this robot is in a remote building, since you often have more damage from the sprinklers going off than anything else.”

Robots can also be equipped with two-way audio that allows communication between the central station and the remote location. A security guard could listen for unusual noise such as a lab beeper going off. Alternatively, after observing someone in a location through the robot's camera, he or she could ask that person for identification.

“In the United States it is not legal to listen to people without their knowledge,” says Dietsch. “By having the robot and the light blinking when the robot is listening, the legal issue is overcome.” Other options include heat detection that uses a small, focused head sensor that can tell if a door is hot or someone left the coffee pot on. The robot transmits data back to a central station.

Perhaps the greatest advantage of the roving platform is that it enables users to move other sensors such as motion detectors. Instead of mounting the devices in permanent, fixed locations, the patrolling unit can literally move the devices to spots where they are needed, thus allowing resources to be shifted to where they are needed most.

Much as can stationary devices, robots can sometimes fall victim to the same false alarms that are so common in security. For example, a box left in front of a platform's motion detector might be indistinguishable from a person. To avoid these mistakes, MobileRobot, for example, mounts its sensors higher up on the device so that it does not pick up small and probably insignificant objects.

Robots can also be equipped with laser sensors that can determine the shape of the figure or object in front of it. When coupled with a surveillance camera feed, operators can make quick identification of the subject.

Robots in the field

Germany's Robowatch provided 20 robot systems to patrol Berlin Stadium during the 2006 Football World Championship (FIFA). Working with human security, the MOSRO, or Mobile Surveillance Robot platform, performed security rounds moving through parking garages, vacant storage rooms and even VIP areas during the popular soccer competition. The tall, cylindrical bots provided users with both video imaging and a 360-degree electro-chemical gas measuring technology designed to detect a large number of toxic gases. It remained in continuous contact with the control room via LAN, ISDN or mobile radio, and sent three real-time images per second.

Meanwhile, the exterior and perimeter areas of the stadium were guarded by the OFRO, or Mobile Outdoor Surveillance robot. Equipped with an integrated thermal camera system, it provided security officials with clear views of dark areas of the facility.

An emerging trend is to develop platforms with the capacity to analyze incoming information on the spot.

“It's not something that is very difficult and will be coming very soon,” Dietsch says. “You want to be able have the robot decide whether it is something that needs response and then either respond itself by starting to log that information on to drive to the source of noise and then notify.”

Today, security personnel “teach” the robot how to get around a particular location. This is usually done by the controller manually driving the platform around a building as it maps the location. Then the robot is able to “remember” where it has been and can avoid fixed obstacles.

An extension of security

Companies are also working to integrate these autonomous robots into their overall security system. They can become part of the WiFi network and function much as any other sensor on the network. Through flexible deployment, they can provide the security department with more options.

The robot can be particularly valuable when an incident occurs in a remote location. Instead of calling someone in that must be paid overtime, the remote robot can be ordered to drive to the location and perform an inspection.

Because they are more visible than in the past, robots are becoming more accepted. Military robots have been used effectively in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, the ordinary consumer is using them to vacuum the home and mow the lawn. More than 2 million Roomba vacuuming robots have been sold along with thousands of the Scooba, a floor-cleaning robot. More models are on the way from Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot.

“People are starting to realize they are just machines — they are not going to rise up and take over the world,” Dietsch says. “Also, the autonomous robots have changed. They have become far more useful, reliable and easier to use.”

Robots on the battlefield

While the public may not see them in action very often, some of the greatest advances in robot technology have been driven by the needs of the military in the war on terror. Robots have joined the arsenal of the soldier on the battlefield and have literally changed the way the soldier fights.

“Robotics represents a disruptive technology,” asserts former Rear Admiral Joe Dryer, executive vice president and general manager of iRobot's Government and Industrial Robots Division. “By disruptive technology, I mean one that changes significantly and relatively quickly the way business used to be done, relative to how it will be done in the future.”

In the early days of the war in Afghanistan, American forces chased the Taliban into wild mountainous regions that offered vast networks of caves in which the enemy could hide. The U.S. Army's method of performing reconnaissance into these areas had changed little since World War I. It still consisted of a soldier with a rope tied around his waist and clutching a 12-foot long stick in his hands, feeling his way into the unknown.

With the introduction of the iRobot PackBot into the war zone, tactics shifted from the soldier facing the dangerous job of personally searching for the enemy to a machine carrying out the task. With the controller guiding the robot through the twists and turns of a cavern while seeing everything it encounters, the area could be quickly cleared without risk to anyone other than the enemy.

A new payload on the PackBot called “Red Owl” was developed to provide sniper protection through acoustic directional finding. Developed by researchers at Boston University working in conjunction with Insight Technologies, the new sensor enables sentries to hear an approaching enemy long before they are able to get into position.

More than 200 of the PackBots are also in Iraq, where they are helping to defuse deadly roadside bombs that have claimed thousands of lives.

Working in rugged terrain sometimes resulted in robots losing communication. Previously, the operator had to go find it and re-establish communication — defeating the purpose of sending the platform out to begin with. New technology now in development at iRobot will program the machine to back up and return to the last location where it had a strong link to its controller.

Other advances will program robots to get themselves upright if they turn over, and allow them to maintain course and speed without monitoring.

The company is also developing a new platform in conjunction with John Deere called the iRobot John Deere Robotic Gator. This six-wheel utility vehicle is a smaller version of the military Jeep. Currently being tested at North Island Naval Air Station near San Diego, the R-Gator provides unmanned autonomous perimeter control. Equipped with a camera and Voice-over-IP, it is able to report to a central command center, and, without human guidance, continue to patrol a large area.

One company that has made cost a primary selling point has been Virginia Beach, Va.-based AMTI Operations. Their small remote-controlled Seeker Series robot is designed to find and destroy Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). They cost less than $10,000 each.

“A customer came in with the request to solve the problem of people being injured overseas by roadside bombs,” says Josh Van Haelen, AMTI's exposive ordnance disposal product manager. “And they wanted a cheap way to do it.”

Taking the challenge, the company came up with a small robot that resembles a radio-controlled monster truck. Made of wood and plastic, it could carry an explosive charge that a controller could direct to the area where a suspected IED was located and then detonate it from a safe distance.

“If it was a roadside bomb, it would counter charge it and take care of the problem,” Van Haelen says.

After shipping more than 2,000 of the robots, AMTI's customers began requesting additional modifications, including a camera to examine the suspected bombs prior to detonation. Over time, the robot platform went through more than a dozen modifications before arriving at its current incarnation — the R-500. It also evolved from a disposable $1,500 device to a reusable $10,000 workhorse.

These security applications are slowly making their way into the civilian sector, where local police and fire have need for robots that can enter buildings where criminals may be hiding or areas where a chemical spill might have occurred. While military robots are controlled wirelessly over secure frequencies, law enforcement agencies can be skeptical of similar wireless applications that could be hacked.

“There is a high demand to make sure the ‘bad guys’ cannot tap into the robot and disable it, so wireless has been slow to get adopted. But it is coming,” says Lloyd Spencer, president and CEO of CoroWare Inc., Redmond, Wash., a robotics integration company.

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© 2009 Penton Media Inc.

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