ARMY AL&T


GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS


Jim Dotterweich, research scientist in the Autonomous Systems Division, monitors a test robot as it demonstrates a maneuver using the self-righting software. The software, which comes in two parts, analyzes the robot’s structure and plans and executes self-righting maneuvers.


in the palm of your hand are limited in how much memory they have and how much processing they can do in real time, he said.


“When I talk about having these two pieces [of software], the analysis piece can happen before the robot ever hits the field, and it will generate maps for the robot that can be stored fairly compactly, in terms of memory … but [the robot will] still be able to use [the maps] without requiring a great deal of process- ing,” Kessens said. Te idea, he continued, is to use the analytical side of the software to thoroughly assess the robot’s morphology beforehand and then capture that information in a compact form to run as a separate piece of software on the robot that the robot would then use to navigate and self-right. Te assessment deter- mines all of the orientations a robot could stably sit in for a given joint configuration on a given ground angle, Kessens said. Te software figures out how those states connect with one another, forming the map—kind of like the way a human remembers how


to get up a certain way from a particular starting position, such as lying on your back. “Once you’ve done it, you know how. You don’t have to think about it much because you can access that knowledge,” he said.


Of course, not all of the Army’s current robotic systems have the same morphology—not all of them are tracked with a single arm, like iRobot’s 510 PackBot or Qinetiq’s Talon—and future robots will be even harder to predict. “Future robotic systems may be significantly more complex—we may have a humanoid robot, and we’re going to want that humanoid robot to be able to pick itself up,” Kessens said. Tis futuristic variety presents an interesting challenge for Kessens: How do you tell a variety of robots, both current and future, how to right themselves? Trough painstak- ing research, careful analysis, a little bit of trial and error and a small Lego-like robot.


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