Slashdot Mirror
Segway's Robotic Mobility Platform
XopherMV writes "USA Today reports a military project aimed at building smarter robots has given researchers the wheels they need to make their automatons go. Originally developed by New Hampshire-based Segway for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program, the firm's Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) allows robot developers to focus more on the thinking power of their machines while providing a quick mode of transportation.
Segway's self-balancing robot platform takes up about 2 square feet and comes equipped with software and interface electronics necessary to receive, process and execute commands from an onboard robot payload.
"It was a minor modification to what we had," Morrell said. "The challenges for us were largely in declining to get too fancy, and keeping it really simple."
Capable of carrying 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and moving about 8 miles (12 kilometers) an hour, the platform has two different modes. Researchers can choose between its standalone function as a robot's wheels or a tractor-like mode for towing trailers or other loads.
"The goal is not to have researchers worry about transportation," Morrell said. "That way, if [a robot's computer algorithms] work on an RMP, then you could put it on a Hummer or anything else.""
I for one welcome our Segway powered over^H^H^H^H... oh, found the on/off switch!
that's the hallmark of a number of awesome inventions - the aim was simplicity at the outset. That's not say it won't get complicated later on, but when you start out complicated more often the complication (and the associated cost) takes over from the crux of the idea.
Iran has endorsed
Monster Segway Robot Challenge! (Only this Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
You saw it here first!
"Like fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master."~RAH
I like this idea - I dont really care if Segway is the best method but its great that researchers (and hobbiests if the price goes down) can use a simple building block.
Anything that gets robots out to the consumer is good - I am still suprised that robots have taken such a lot time to be sellable. I want my drink retrieving, vaccuum cleaning, walking, talking robot - Damnit!!
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
I totally can't see the use for this.
Well actually I can, if I walk around the "battlefield training" areas where americans test their weapons. You know, like the bombing range where they tested the norton bomb sights. A location chosen for its all year around clear weather.
What can a segway possibly be used for. Well it is slow as well but about as fast as a marching soldier so it can save them energy. Well true. If the battle field is nice and smooth with a hard surface. No rain, mud, loose sand, rivers, streams, shell holes, trenches, fences, barbed wire, loose stones etc etc etc. None of the stuff in fact that makes up a battlefield
Even an urban battlefield doesn't stay clean enough for long for this thing to be practical.
Behind the battlefield? Ehm yeah the thing is still damn slow and your still standing. So no replament for a truck.
Carrying supplies or wounded? Same problem, at the battlefield where trucks and such are to big it can't move and behind the lines it is to slow.
Even a soldier on patrol is useless, he needs his hands on his weapon not on the controls of this thing, at least with a truck you got 1 driver and 2-3 passengers.
No I can see this as another way to make war look nicer and cleaner. This will not be the revolution that the jeep was.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
stupid americans and their imperial system, I blame bush.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Read the article. It is just a test bed for the software and other sensors. The scientists developing software and other sensors won't have to also develop the components to move the sensors around. The sensors and software can later be added to other, more capable, mobility platforms.
For example, there is no reason the software and sensors couldn't be added to a truck, to either deliver cargo between point A and B automatically, or to follow one lead vehicle in a convoy.
>Even a soldier on patrol is useless, he needs his hands on his weapon not on the controls of this thing, at least with a truck you got 1 driver and 2-3 passengers.
Yes, but if the robot could be programmed to follow the soldier automatically, carrying his ruck or additional cargo (weapons, ammo, sensors, commo gear), then the soldier is better able to shoot, move, and communicate.
The soldier could also have the option of making a relatively inexpensive robot travel in front, tripping mines or other booby traps, serving as point man. (Which the packbot already does.)
The Masters of Useless Technology have finally discovered the biggest consumers of useless crap that has ever existed - the US military, and boy those pockets are deep.
This is sort of like when the RIAA discovered the disposable income of teenagers, but with added gore.
Bush has said often that there will not be a draft, there are enough troops. In fact more than enough, the military doesn't take everyone who walks through their doors trying to get in.
Kerry says we need 40,000 more troops. Where is he going to get them? True he can start with those who were refused, but is that enough?
Kerry has said that he would go to war in Iraq. He hasn't been real clear, and who knows what he would have really done, but there is a good chance that if he was president now there would still be troops in Iraq.
Some democrats (Not kerry, AFAIK) have tried to start a draft. Call a political play, but the fact is it is the democrats that are trying to start the draft.
In short, you are more in danger - on this issue - if Kerry is elected. There are, of course, thousands of issues. Study them and make a decision based on facts, not feelings.
I would think that if you're going into a spot where there's likely to be a 90% casualty rate you're not likely to find a high proportion of good guys to bad guys.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
We've had a couple of these for the past year or so. They're currently being developed into soccer-playing robots as part of Robocup.
The goal there is to have a team of humans on segways play segway robots in an actual soccer match.
The project's website, which has a movie page with a ton of movies of the thing in action is here.
Judging from the replies here, I'm guessing none of you have seen the new segway centaur prototype. It has been shown working its way about grassy terrain, and moving over obstacles such as boxes. While it is a 4 wheeled vehicle, it also has the power to do the two wheeled balancing act of its older segway cousin. i suggest you all check it out, before dooming this military project.
http://www.segway.com/centaur/
13 year old white supremacists are shitty web designers.
But that's no longer the case. There are many good off the shelf bases. Cybermotion, iRobot, Arrick, ActiveMedia, Klephera, and Zagros all make wheeled robot bases. Even legged machines are available.
Right now, the big bottleneck is sensing. Visual processing still doesn't work (the hardware is fine, but the theory doesn't work), true 3D laser rangefingers aren't here yet (although I've seen one working on an optical bench) and submillimeter radar hasn't reached production yet (millimeter radar has limited resolution.) Most of the hobbyist world is still using 1980s ultrasonic devices, IR reflectance sensors, and feelers, which don't work any better than they did in the 1980s.