New generation of robots

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 25

New generation of robots

NZPA-NYT Pittsburgh A car that has six wheels, television cameras, propels itself and needs no driver, is in the forefront of what scientists at Carnegie-Mel-lon University in Pittsburgh call a new generation of robots. The vehicle, called the Terregator, follows the first crude robots of the 1960 s and the far more sophisticated generation now widely used to perform automated tasks in factories. The new machines blend recent advances in artificial intelligence, computer science and microelectronics. They would have the ability not only to collect information, as does the Terregator in sensing the environment around it, but to make independent judgments, as the car must do to adjust speeds and steer round obstacles.

The Terregator uses a combination of lasers,

acoustic devices that use sound to judge distances like a bat, and stereo television with multiple cameras to scan the terrain ahead. It then tries to match the terrain with similar images in its computer. Thus, in theory, the straight lines, undulations, curves, curbs and edges that are normal features of roads can be seen, and instructions for steering and speed adjustments can be made when needed. If the sensors confront extremely complicated patterns, the Terregator can communicate by radio with a nearby mainframe computer that is programmed with a wider variety of visual scenarios. One organisation with particular interest in such sophisticated systems is the Pentagon, which last summer began a SUS6OO million (SNZI326 million) strategic computing programme, a 10-year effort aimed at developing third-generation

robots, some within five years.

Labelled "machine intelligence technology” by the Army, research on this new breed of robots directly affects the development of such militaiy hardware as cruise missiles, tanks and underwater drones. Different versions of the six-wheeled Terregator. which looks like a small, squat van and weighs from 454 kg to 908 kg depending upon the type of equipment carried, are powered by either petrol or electricity. “We’re not saying the vehicle is perfect yet,” said Dr William Whittaker, an engineering professor at Carnegie-Mellon’s Robotics Institute who is the principal scientist on the project. He said that the Terregator’s performance severely embarrassed its creators recently when they took it out for a spin in neighbouring Schenley Park.

“We aimed it down a wooded path and it was

going quite well until the curves became sharper and it got into trouble, veering off the track, climbing a tree to the height of 1.2 metres, and clawing at the bark,” Dr Whittaker said.

“We eventually figured out that its model of a road better fitted the tree than the path did,” he said. “We’re working to correct that.”

Dr Whittaker spoke enthusiastically about the possible uses of vehicles like the Terregator. "Why shouldn’t we send machines rather than people into hazardous places such as radioactive factories.” he asked, “and why not have autonomous vehicles doing the mindless drudgery of planting and harvesting crops, and why not have the ore stripped from an open pit copper mine carried by a Terregator rather than a dump truck run by a totally unnecessary man.

“True, the target is blue sky,” Dr Whittaker said,

“but the idea of pilotless navigation will be of great practical interest at some time because the ability of a robot to locomote has value that far exceeds operations from a fixed base.

“Much of the heavy works of the world require mobility and locomotion; mining, materials handling, undersea pipe laying, and some may be hazardous because they may occur in the presence of extreme heat, dust and radiation,” he said.

"That's why pilotless navigation makes sense, and why it might be necessary for a mobile robot to have its own wits."

Research and development projects similar to Carnegie-Mellon’s are under way at a dozen other facilities in the United States, including the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Martin Marietta Corporation in Denver.