This week on a soccer field New Orleans, a handful of
computer scientists will demonstrate the progress they’ve made
toward turning the Segway Human Transporter into an unmanned
“thinking” machine that the Pentagon hopes to use some day on
the battlefield.
Manuela Veloso, professor of computer science at Carnegie
Mellon University, said the Segway is just in the initial
stages of development.
“It only really chases a ball, and then a little bit more,”
she said.
But it isn’t that big of a leap to see how the two-wheeled
machine assembled in Bedford could eventually perform useful,
even life saving, tasks.
“You could be rescuing people or following a person instead
of chasing a ball. It could be chasing anything. The algorithm
we did can be changed,” she said.
Speaking of this week’s demonstration, Einar Gall, research
director of the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego, Calif.,
said the day should give researchers some idea of whether the
machines can enter the ongoing robotics soccer challenge.
“It’s going to be two different demonstrations of the
potential of applying the Segways to the RoboCup problem,” he
said. “The basic plan is to have human and robot soccer teams
playing each other by 2050.”
Pentagon funding
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency sent
about 15 Segways to researchers around the country, complete
with funding to start working on the idea of turning the
two-wheeled transporters into robotics warriors.
These Segways aren’t exactly like the $5,000 models people
are buying to ride. Instead, the machines have been specially
outfitted with a platform that allows researchers to move
around without a human standing on it and steering it, or
evening guiding them remotely.
Laptops attached to the platform allow researchers to
develop software and a control a host of sensors for it to
move around. It’s a rugged platform with a high center of
gravity that lets cameras and sensors to be placed well above
the ground.
The platform — called the Segway Robotics Mobility Platform
(RMP) — was developed by the Manchester-based Segway LLC with
DARPA funding.
In the end, DARPA would like these robots to reduce the
cost to acquire and sustain military systems, extend the range
of military hardware capabilities and radically change how
society thinks about and designs, builds and employs future
military systems.
Talking robots?
Researchers are aiming to give the robots the ability to
think — to know what they are doing — through reason, and to
learn through experience and to improve over time. They also
want the robots to be able to communicate, explaining
themselves and understanding verbal orders from humans.
To date, researchers have tweaked the Segway to
independently do basic functions such as open a door, navigate
around obstacles, follow a person or even chase a soccer ball.
Most of these machines are on loan from the government, but
scientists are also purchasing the units. Gall said the
institute recently purchased units.
“I would assume we’re probably going to continue to pursue
and purchase it,” said Oliver Brock, a professor and scientist
at the University of Massachusetts computer science
department.
Each university is putting its own twist on how to make the
Segway a thinking robot capable of moving about the world
independent from a human operating a joy stick.
Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology built
a Segway robot that can navigate hallways and open doors.
Having a ball
At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Segways are
being used as part of a lab’s ongoing efforts to build robots
that can play soccer with humans.
“We’re trying to instill skills in to the Segway that make
it useful if you want a robotics mule following someone while
avoiding objects,” Brock said.
Brock said work is also progressing on turning the Segway
into a platform for mobile manipulation.
“We’re going to put arms and a visual system on it,” he
said.
Brock said his group hopes to make the machine “operate in
a world tooled and engineered for humans,” meaning it can do
things like manage a door knob.
In reference to getting the machine to play soccer, Gall
said, “What we are doing is exploring the application of brain
based devices to some of the issues related to this
challenge.”
So far, the military program has delivered at least 15
Segways to university and government research labs since last
spring. The project’s funding is part of the Pentagon’s $26
million budget for this year to develop software for
autonomous systems.
The following institutions are among those participating in
the initial evaluation and application of the Segway RMP:
Carnegie Mellon University; Georgia Institute of Technology;
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; NASA / Johnson Space
Center; Naval Research Laboratory; the Neurosciences
Institute, SPAWAR Systems Center, San Diego; Stanford
University; University of Massachusetts; University of
Michigan; University of Pennsylvania; University of Southern
California; and Vanderbilt University.
Meanwhile, sluggish sales
In 2001, when Segways were unveiled, it was predicted by
some that the device would transform the nature of urban
transportation. Last September, however, Segway disclosed
during a voluntary recall of the machine that just 6,000 had
been sold.
After it was unveiled on national television, the Segway HT
did not become available for sale to the public for another 11
months. Initially, Amazon.com began taking orders for the Ť
$4,950 scooters for March 2003 delivery. Since that time,
retail outlets have begun selling the Segway, too.
In February, Segway LLC officials declined to comment
directly on a published report that the company has had to
raise additional capital to maintain operations.
Segway officials also did not return calls last week.
Reports and records showed that the Manchester-based firm
took a mortgage on its assembly facility in Bedford in
September. It also recently raised $31 million to supplement
its initial $100 million infusion, the Wall Street Journal
reported.
The Journal also reported that Segway inventor Dean Kamen
has curtailed his day-to-day involvement in the company.
Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported
Segway had spent all of the $100 million it raised at its
outset in December 2001. Segway has subsequently added
Brookstone Inc. and a number of authorized dealers to its
network.
Segway reported $31 million was raised between March and
December 2003, in filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the Journal reported.
