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The United States military has adaptedthe motion-sensitive Wii Remotes to operate bomb-defusing robots inwar-zone situations, it's emerged.
The Packbot, which looks a lot likeJohnny-5 in Short Circuit and is made by iRobot in Burlington,Massachusetts, disposes of bombs, finds explosives and locateslandmines for soldiers in the field.
It's also controlled bythe Wii Remote. "Wiimotes are more instinctive, allowing users to focuson data processing," US Department of Energy scientists told New Scientist.
Unfortunately, there's no word yet on whether we can see a home edition from the US Government, ala America's Army.
Quote:
IF YOU see a soldier in action waving a Nintendo Wii remote-controlunit with one hand and holding an Apple iPhone in the other, don'tassume they're slacking off. Soldiers may soon be using such devices tointeract with their robotic assistants.
The"Wiimote" control system allows game players to direct on-screen actionusing a wireless wand that detects acceleration in three dimensions. Ithas already found some unexpected uses, such as manipulating ultrasound images and monitoring movement deficiencies in people with Parkinson's disease (New Scientist,16 February, p 26). Now David Bruemmer and Douglas Few, both engineersat the US Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab in Idaho Falls,have modified a military robot so that it can be controlled by theWiimote.
"Using the 'Wiimote' to intuitively control the robot makes sense"
Packbot,made by iRobot in Burlington, Massachusetts, disposes of bombs, sniffsout explosives and checks for landmines for US soldiers. It is 70centimetres long, and moves on wheels or tracks. Some even have machineguns attached, although these are yet to be used in battle (see "Make robots, not war").
Packbotis capable of some autonomous tasks, but is usually remote-controlledby a "joypad" similar to the controller used with most video gamesconsoles, or a traditional joystick. The joypad consists of two groupsof thumb-activated buttons, one for steering and the other for speedcontrol. The problem with the joypad is that it takes a lot ofconcentration and can monopolise the attention of the soldier using it.Any information the robot gathers is beamed back and presented on alaptop display, but the soldier can be so occupied with the robot'scontrols that they can easily miss this, says Bruemmer. "Our tests show90 per cent of the operator's workload goes into driving the robotrather than keeping an eye on the sensor data."
TheWiimote is far more intuitive because movements of the hand directlytranslate into movements of the robot. Bruemmer says it should allowsoldiers to control the robots more instinctively, freeing them up topay closer attention to the incoming sensor data. "It's awesome," Fewsays, although they have yet to ask the soldiers themselves what theythink. Bruemmer and Few have also written software that sends a signalto the Wiimote when the robot has detected something of specialinterest - somebody trapped in a building, say - activating theWiimote's built-in vibration feedback.
"Using the Wiimote to control various aspects of the robot makes a lot of sense," says Colin Angle of iRobot.
Thepair also plan to harness the iPhone for military use. As analternative to lugging a laptop around, Few and Bruemmer plan to modifythe Packbot to transmit footage compatible with the palm-sized iPhone.Its touch screen should also allow soldiers to manipulate the videocaptured by the robot more intuitively.
The team will also be adding Wiimote control to the military Talon robots,made by Foster-Miller of Waltham, Massachusetts, but it could beapplied to other types. "When trying to envision controlling a futuredomestic robot, I don't picture sitting down to my PC to instruct it tofetch me something," says Bruemmer.
Weapons Technology - Keep up with the latest innovations in our cutting edge special report.
Robots - Learn more about the robotics revolution in our continually updated special report.
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