In one memorable scene in the 1951 movie
The Day the Earth Stood Still, the giant
robot Gort picks up the body of his companion Klaatu and cradles the alien visitor in his
arms. The robot then carries Klaatu back to
the safety of their flying saucer for life-restoring treatment. Now, life is imitating art.
A giant mobile robot developed by Vecna
Technologies is able to use its arms to rescue
injured soldiers from the battlefield. "I am very
excited about the potential of this robot to not
only save lives by going out and rescuing people,
but to save lives by doing jobs that are unnecessarily dangerous," says Daniel Theobald, president and chief technology officer of Vecna.
Most military-funded research focuses on
developing or improving weapons systems. But
as the nation continues fighting a dual-front war
in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Department of
Defense is increasingly turning its attention
inward and actively supporting research designed
to improve soldiers' well-being. "The military
has shown that they're committed to soldiers' safety," says Theobald.
IN GORT'S FOOTSTEPS
Vecna's robot mirrors much of
Gort's functionality—except for the ability to fire disintegrator rays. Funded by the Army's Telemedicine and Advanced
Technology Research Center, the Battlefield Extraction
Robot (BEAR) walks on two legs, climbs stairs, and lifts
objects equivalent to the size and weight of a fully outfitted
soldier (Fig. 1).
Theobald notes that the remotely controlled BEAR is
markedly different from other military robots, which are
either vehicle-sized or small enough to be toys. "There wasn't
anything in the middle," he says. "There was a real lack of
robotic capability that addressed this critical area—a robot
that can... actually interact with the environment, lift things,
carry things, move things of significant weight."
A prototype BEAR incorporated a single hydraulic arm
that could lift nearly 300 lb. Vecna recently demonstrated
an improved model that cradled a human-sized dummy in
two arms as it climbed up and down stairs. The most recent
system's arms function like a forklift, sliding under objects
and people before lifting them up. Theobald says future
models will include articulated hands for gently scooping
up casualties.
Standing 6 ft tall, BEAR features an array of high-tech
hardware, including microprocessors, analog-to-digital converters, optical encoders, pressure sensors, and ultrasonic
and infrared range finders. "In the current head we have two
cameras—a night-vision camera and an active, infrared camera that can actually see heat," says Theobald.
For a big guy, BEAR is surprisingly mobile. Wheels on its
feet, knees, and hips allow it to roll smoothly over level
ground. Alternatively, thigh- and shin-mounted tracks enable
it to move over rough terrain or stairs in a crouching or
kneeling position.
The robot's most incongruous feature is its teddy-bear-like
head, which is designed to comfort and reassure casualties
(or perhaps help them laugh through their pain). "The troops
will get used to it," says Theobald. "The troops will be
dependent on [the robot] and will have a connection to it."
Besides rescuing fallen soldiers, BEAR could also be used
for various dangerous military and civilian tasks that would
expose humans to excessive risk, such as removing unexploded ammo, patrolling a nuclear facility, or retrieving important items from a burning building. "OSHA and mine safety
people are very interested," says Theobald.
A SHOT IS HEARD
While Vecna's robot is designed to
rescue wounded soldiers, other new technology may keep
troops from getting injured in the first place. An associate
professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University, Rob Maher is investigating how sound—
specifically, the sound of gunshots—can save soldiers from
sniper fire and other battlefield hazards. "Over the years
there has been a lot of interest in trying to figure out where a
bullet is going once it comes out of a rifle," he says.
Maher's goal is to pave the way for devices that would tell
users, almost instantly, a gunshot's direction and distance. A
soldier could then pinpoint a sniper's exact location after just
a single shot was fired. Such a unit would feature two or
more microphones to detect the gunshot from slightly different positions, as well as a small computer to make the necessary calculations.
"Sound travels at a relatively slow rate compared to the
speed of electronics these days, so determining the relative
time of the soundwaves' arrival at those different microphones is not particularly difficult any more," says Maher.
"Using a computer to figure out the time differences and then
predicting for a given trajectory how long that soundwave
path would be, that's the procedure."