JOHN EDWARDS | Contributing Editorjedv\/ards@john-edwards, com

THE RATS, SNAKES, INSECTS,AND LOBSTERS OF WARNEXT-GENERATION MILITARY ROBOTS THAT LOOK AND PEREORM LIKE ANIAAALSPROMISE TO BECOME A SOLDIER'S BEST FRIENDS.

They run, crawl, slither, fly, andjump. They're also robots.

Fueled by funding fromthe Defense AdvancedResearch Projects Agency(DARPA) and other publicand private organizations,researchers at labs nation-

wide are developing a new generation ofmilitary robots. Inspired by designs alreadyperfected by nature, these robots are help-ing military units accomplish missions withless risk to soldiers and civilians.

Joseph Ayers. principal investigator of theBiomimetic Underwater Robot Program atNortheastern University's Marine ScienceCenter, notes that animal physiology andbehavior are inspiring robot developers to takemilitary robotics to the next level. "Even thesimplest animals outperform any known robot,especially in autonomous operations," saysAyers. "Animals have performance advantages.and we're trying to capture these advantages Inan engineered solution."

Ayers' personal goal is to create a roboticlobster that may someday be used by the U.S.Navy to detonate marine explosives. "Theprocess that a lobster goes through when itsearches for food is exactly the same processyou would want one to go through to search forunderwater mines," he says.

Ayers isn't alone in his belief that animal-inspired robots are destined to assist orreplace soldiers and civilians in a variety ofdangerous tasks. "The human is becoming theweakest link," DARPA wamed last year in anunclassified report. "Sustaining and augment-ing human performance will have significantimpact on Defense missions and systems."

Yet as researchers strive to create robotsthat mimic the action of different kinds of real-world creatures, with the goal of removing sol-diers from potentially dangerous environmentsand situations, critics are questioning the basicconcept of robot-driven, nsk-free warfare.

"The whole field poses a dilemma." saysNoel Sharkey. a professor of artificial intel-ligence, robotics, and public engagement atthe University of Sheffield in the U.K. Sharkeynotes that it's the moral duty of any command-er to protect the welfare of his soldiers. "Butthe problem is. ¡f it's risk-free war to one side.can that be a just war?"

A nation that feels there's no risk inengaging an enemy, says Sharkey. maybe more inclined to use force to solve itsproblems. Still, despite the criticism, there'sno sign that the military or any of its fundedresearchers are feeling any moral qualmsabout their goals. As Ayers notes, "it's bet-ter to lose a robot than a person."

pounds and measuring approximately twolong, it's also about the same size as itscounterpart.

Biomimetic robots like RoboLobster aredesigned to be small, agile,and relatively cheap,particularly whenviewed in thelight of sav-ing people .from .y 1"

feetliving

Besides being tasty, lobsters are remarkablecreatures. They can crawl along the ocean bedalmost continuously for up to 100 years, hunt-ing with powerful claws and performing variousother activities in places were visibility is oftenclose to zero. Using funds provided by the U.S.Office of Naval Research, Ayers' submersiblerobot is designed to use a lobster's best fea-tures to perform dangerous underwater tasksfor the military. "It's designed to eliminate therisk to humans," he says.

Ayers' Biomimetic Underwater Robot, unof-ficially dubbed "RoboLobster." can move inany direction and wiggle and squirm, just likea real lobster (Fig. 1). Weighing about seven

injury and death. Thesystems rely on electronic nervoussystems, sensors, and novel actua-tors. Perhaps most importantly, biomimeticdevices take direct advantage of capabilitiesthat have already been proven in animals fordealing with real-world situations in uniqueenvironments.

In the case of RoboLobster, the system caneven be adapted to improve upon nature. Therobot can. for example, be built with "claws"created out of explosives, designed for use ina suicide mine-detonation mission. "Typicalmines that are used in underwater warfareare 500-pound aerially dropped bombs," saysAyers. "No one is going to go in and pick thatup and carry that away. All you can do Is todetonate It in place." m

RoboLobster is one of the first robots to uœartificial muscle. Known as NITINOL. it lets therobot move around easily at depths of up to 40

I. With a projected cost of

$1000 per unit, Northeastern

University's RoboLobster could

save money as well as lives

while condgcting dangerous

missions such as mine

detonation.

ELECTRONIC DESIGN GO TO WWW.ELECTRON1CDESIGN.COM

BlOMIMETÎC ROBOTS LIKE ROBOLOBSTER ARE DESIGNED TO BE SMALL,

AGILE, AND RELATIVELY CHEAP, PARTICULARLY WHEN VIEWED IN THE LIGHT

OE SAVING PEOPLE FROM INJURY AND DEATH.

2. The Bristol Robotics Laboratory at the University

of Sheffield is developing the Scratchbot. Based on a

rat, its senstive whiskers probe the environment and

help it negotiate rugged terrain,

feet. NITINOL (an acronym for Nickel TitaniumNaval Ordnance Laboratory) is a family of inter-metallic materials that contain a nearly equalmixture of nickel and titanium.

The material's inherent elasticity and shapememory enables it to bend and snap back toits original position, making it a durable andreliable actuator. RoboLobster moves abouton eight legs, each featuring three NITINOL-controlled motors costing about $200 apiece.

RoboLobster can be powered by a recharge-able nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) or lithium-ion(Li-ion) battery pack and controlled by a propri-etary neuronal-circuit-based controller. But con-trolling a robot walking out of sight undenwaterposed a unique challenge for Ayers and histeam. To keep RoboLobster from inadvertentlywandering away from its target area, research-ers devised the idea of using a series of under-water sonar beacons.

"A short baseline array will tell the deviationof that beacon from the orientation of the hullof the robot," says Ayers. "The idea is to getthe robot to home in on the sonar beacon andthen swim toward the beacon."

For Ayers, basing an aquatic robot on a lob-ster was simply a matter of common sense."We had an incredible library about how theseanimals solve problems," he says. Yet Ayersnotes that building a robot based on an animalmodel is a two-way street. "You need to knowhow the animal works in order to build therobot. But as you build the robot, you identifythings you didn't know about the animals."

Ayers plans to begin real-world, underwatertesting in about a year. "Everything is built andall the software is working. We're now in theintegration phase," he says. Ayers believesthat RoboLobster can eventually be producedfor under $1000 per unit. He feels that price is

a bargain, since the Navy is cun-ently willing tospend around $27,000 on equipment and otherresources just to take out a single mine. "Plus,you have to consider how much a human life isworth," he says.

RviWhile they aren't everybody's favorite animal,

rats can persistently pick their way throughobstacles to reach whatever they desire, usingtheir highly sensitive whiskers to guide theirway. This physical trait has inspired scientistsat the University of Sheffield to develop a robotrat. "In designing intelligent, lifelike machines,the use of touch has been largely overlooked,"says Tony Prescott, the project's leader and aprofessor of cognitive neuroscience.

Prescott's rat, currently under development,will be designed to mimic real-world rat behav-ior. Rats have pretty lousy close-up vision. Tocompensate, they have evolved a keen senseof touch, primarily through their whiskers.

Prescott notes that the common Non^fegianrat uses its whiskers to make sense of its envi-ronment. It sweeps its whiskers back and forthat high speeds in a controlled manner, allowingit to use touch signals alone to recognize famil-iar items, determine the shape and surface ofobjects, and track and capture prey.

Using their understanding of the animalkingdom, as well as funding from the EuropeanUnion's Future Emerging Technologies (FET) pro-gram, the Sheffield research team is developinga whiskered robot that can seek out, identify,and track fast-moving target objects. "Overall,our project will bring about a step-change inthe understanding of active touch sensing andin the use of whisker-like sensors in intelligentmachines." says Prescott.

Sheffield's researchers are working on asystem that will tum whisker movements intoelectrical signals (Fig. 2). "There are lots ofways to do this," says Prescott. "You coulduse magnetic sensors or strain sensors, forinstance." In either case, the goal is to createa signal that can be processed. "A signal thatyou can analyze to detect the properties of thesurface," he says.

Prescott envisions several possible applica-tions for the technology, ranging from search-and-rescue robots that could pick their way

through rubble and debris, to mine-clearingmachines, to planetary rovers in space. Thetechnology could also be used closer to homein domestic products, such as vacuum cleanersthat could sense textures for optimal cleaning,he observes.

As a "blue sky project" designed to test aconcept. Prescott doesn't expect the prototypebeing developed by his team to ever enter pro-duction. "We're looking to see what interestthere is from industrial and military users, thendevelop this technolo^ in the four to five yearsbeyond that," he says.

S\\Ki;s 0^ AWhen people envision futuristic robots, they

think of machines that walk, roll, and perhapseven fly. Few. however, would imagine a robotthat slithers. Howie Choset, on the other hand,thinks about slithering robots every day.

An associate professor of robotics atCarnegie Mellon University, Choset is workingon a robotic snake that could be used for urbansearch-and-rescue missions. Italso could help inspectstructures insideaircraft, ships.and other ^ ^ ^cramped » ' -^^^ * *places.And. it couldremove landmines.

Funded by the Office ofNaval Research and Boeing,Choset aims to create robots thatcan twist and turn their way intocramped locations that are inac-cessible to humans. "With theirenhanced flexibility and 'reach' abilityin convoluted environments, serpentinerobots make sense," he says. Snakerobotics has been a career-long venturefor Choset. He embraced the idea as a stu-dent in 1971. This project began in 1990.

3. Developed by Howie Choset at Carnegie Mellon

university, this robotic snake is designed for

search-and-rescue missions as well as performing

inspections and other hazardous tasks where human

beings may not be able to go.

i

6 0 06,19,08 ELECTRONIC DESIGN

N I T I N O L ' S INHERENT ELASTICITY AND SHAPE MEMORY ENABLES IT TO

BEND AND SNAP BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL POSITION, MAKING IT A DURABLE

AND RELIABLE ACTUATOR.

Choset notes that robotic snakes would beperfect for investigating destroyed structures.Large buildings that experience a pancakecoliapse, such as the Worid Trade Center,prevent rescue workers from entering dueto fear of further collapse. "But the biggestproblem is that both peopie and dogs areusually too big to enter the voids betweendebris," he says.

The technoiogy couid also be used to checkthe condition of wounded soldiers in a battie-fieid environment. "It's a shame to have asoldier go out and check to see if someone ishurt or dead in the middle of a firefight," saysChoset. "One of the most common causes ofcasualties in the Iraq War is someone going outto help a solider they think is hurt."

A low-profile robotic snake, equipped withvideo and audio sensors, could assess thesituation without placing additional lives at risk.Choset also envisions robot snakes slitheringup flagpoles and antenna masts to provide on-the-spot reconnaissance.

Biological snakes move by using differentcyclic forms of squirming locomotion, or "gaits."Adapting these gaits to the mechanical snakeenables the robot to maneuver through 3Dterrains. Choset says his specially designedmotion-planning algorithms allow his electrome-chanical snakes to autonomously sense andrespond to everything they encounter.

Choset explains that tips from evolutionhelped him design the snake robot. He pointsout that snakes lost their legs because theygot in the way when crawling through narrowpassageways. That's why he decided to usesquirming locomotion for a robot designedto enter tight locations. Using beveled gearsaround its circumference, Chosefs roboticsnake—measuring only 5 cm in diameter—hasmany more degrees of motion freedom thanjust about any other robot ever developed (Fig.3). Built-in redundancy allows the robot's mis-sion to proceed even if an actuator or other keycomponent fails.

Choset admits that several significant chal-lenges still must be addressed before roboticsnakes can go into full production. Mechanismdesign, control, and sensor integration aresome of the remaining major issues. Betterpath planning is also needed, he says.

"Current serpentine path planners are rudi-mentary at best and can't work in complex envi-ronments," says Choset. He's currently devel-oping new algorithms for directing serpentinemechanisms through unknown 3D spaces. "It'svery complex work."

CAlJmiT l!\ A S V ARM _ ^ ^ _ _ _Insects may be an even more exotic model.

Thanks to their small size and ability to workin unison, robots designed on insect principlesmay be able to accomplish tasks faster andmore efficiently than much larger machines.

4. Robot swarms like the Symbrion from the Symbiotic

Evolutionary Robot Organisms project can coordinate their

actions to achieve a single goal, such as building a bridge.

The goal of the European Union-fundedSymbiotic Evolutionary Robot Organisms proj-ect, also known as Symbrion, is to understandthe principles that govern how robots can formthemselves into a single artificial organism.This approach allows robot "swarms" to interactcollectively with the physical world (Fig. 4). Thetechnique could ultimately be applied to real-world tasks, such as finding and reporting onthe location of wounded soldiers and civilians.

Multi-robot organism swarms would bedesigned to contain anywhere from a dozen orso to hundreds or even thousands individualrobots. Each of the mobile (but not airborne)devices would be only slightly larger than asugar cube, but capable of working together asa single artificial lifeform.

The robots would be able to share informa-tion and energy with each other as well as man-age their own hardware and software. In fact,when the devices join together into a singleorganism, each will be able to share its crucialinformation with all of the others, creating anoverall system that can evolve in the face ofnew problems—jLJSt as a natural immune sys-tem can cope with unfamiliar pathogens.

Jon Timmis, a researcher in the Departmentof Electronics at the University of York in theU.K., is working to develop an artificial immunesystem that would protect individual robots andthe larger collective organism. The immune sys-tem, says Timmis, will be able to detect faultsand make recommendations to a high-level con-trol system about corrective action, much in theway a person's adaptive immune system moni-tors the body's status to keep it healthy.

The project's ultimate goal is to create auton-omous swarms that can work both separatelyand as a group to accomplish specific tasks."You might have 500 individual units runningaround doing individual tasks and then, undercertain conditions, they will join into a singlerobotic unit," says Timmis.

For example, if a military unit is reportedlylost, multiple robots can set out on a searchmission. Then, once the missing soldiers arefound, the swarm will join together to deliversupplies, provide airborne reconnaissance, andperhaps even carry the most seriously woundedpersonnel to safety. "This swarm of robots willbe able to figure out. on their own, that they

6 3 06.19 08 ELECTRONIC DESIGN

MilitaryRobotics M O S T ANIMAL ROBOT RESEARCHERS SAY THEY ARE CONTENT

TO BUILD MACHINES THAT ARE DESIGNED TO SAVE HUMAN LIVES

RATHER THAN TAKE THEM.

need to join together, as well as figuring outhow to do this, in order to achieve their task,"Timmis says.

Timmis believes the first swarming robotsshould begin arriving in just a few years,although many more years of R&D will berequired to create systems capable of search-and-rescue and other useful activities, "Thecore technologies will be in place in fiveyears, and there will be demonstrations ofrobotic units joining together, climbing overwails, and so on," he says. "I'm very confi-dent this will happen."

MdRAI,The military's current infatuation with animal-

inspired robots resembles previous attempts to

use trained animals as helpers and even weap-ons. The U.S. Navy, for example, used dolphinsto help locate and clear mines in the PersianGulf during the 2003 Iraq War, and it continuesto train dolphins and sea lions for military tasksat West Coast facilities.

Sharkey notes that today's robot experiment-ers are now, in essence, picking up the balland heading toward the same goal as previousanimal experimenters. Therefore, many of thesame moral issues animal researchers facedare now being tossed at military robot develop-ers, particularly as robots move from supportroles to fighting enemy combatants.

"No matter what physical form the robotsmay take, the drive is to have fully autono-mous robots that can decide for themselves

who to kill," Sharkey says. "That's a seriousethical challenge."

Besides the moral dilemma posed by autono-mous fighting robots, Sharkey worries thetechnology may eventually fall into the handsof unstable regimes and terrorists—peoplewho would feel no compunction about sendingmurderous robots rolling, crawling, or slitheringtoward innocent civilians. "Using robots doesn'tmean you won't have suicide bombers as well,"he notes, "it just adds more to the arsenal."

For now. most animal robot researchers saythey are content to build machines that aredesigned to save human lives rather than takethem. As Ayers puts it, "It's kind of hard toimagine a fighting lobster." ©

ED ONLINE 19097

Stretching to make your embedded USB connections?

Lose the cord and pull your system tc^ether with StackableUSB™.

StackableUSB answers the embedded OEMs' need for a ru^ed, compact, efficient serial

bus by providing one that is exclusively USB. With 8 USB ports in the stack, USB boards

can plug together top side - bottom side - or both. StackableUSB simplifies I/O boards,

once again making it easy enough to design V4-si2e, V2-size, and full-size 104's yourself.

Visit www.StackableUSB.org and join today!

StackableUSB'

64 06.19.08 ELECTRONIC DESIGN