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Multitouch Control Screen Turns Swarm Robotics Into a Game of StarCraft (video)

2010-09-01 18:54
TweetTouchscreens and swarm robotics go together like geeks and video games. Mark Micire 8217;s PhD dissertation puts robotic control at his fingertips. The UMass Lowell student developed a command and control program for the Microsoft Surface touchscreen so that swarm robots can be easily guided. Watching Micire 8217;s program in action makes it look like he 8217;s playing StarCraft, only with real robots. Teams of bots can be color coded, groups can be selected by circling them with a finger, and robots can be commanded to move either individually or en masse. You can even manually drive a robot with a special pop-up interface. What 8217;s the use for this multitouch control system There are military applications, but Micire has a strong background in search and rescue robotics. Touchscreen swarms could be the next innovation in disaster relief. Watch Micire 8217;s demo his system in the video below. Swarm robots come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes, and capabilities, but they generally follow one strategy: many hands make light work. Bots are used together to divide and conquer a problem, overcoming challenges with a large number of workers. Many of the swarms we 8217;ve seen are autonomous. In critical missions, however, robot AI may not yet be sufficient to find a solution to a problem. That 8217;s why human guidance is still very important. Micire 8217;s touchscreen program gives the operator various levels of control. This would allow humans to adjust their involvement as the case warrants. If robot autonomy can handle a situation, commands could simply instruct bots in a general way - go there, look for human bodies, report back. The system also allows for more direct commands - follow this route, etc. When direct human control is needed, operators can manually drive bots using the DREAM interface (Dynamically Resizing Ergonomic And Multitouch), as you can see at 2:23 in the video below. Unfortunately, the demo above doesn 8217;t show the system controlling physical robots. The bots on the screen are simulated. But Micire can control real world robots using the touchscreen, as you can see in the video below: Micire 8217;s work seem immediately applicable to fieldwork for robotics. It 8217;s really no surprise considering his experience in search and rescue operations. It 8217;s important to remember that robots already form a valuable part of S R teams, allowing humans to explore areas that are too hazardous or difficult to reach. Case in point, here 8217;s Micire 8217;s video of work he did in Mississippi after Hurrican Katrina back in 2005 Of course, there are many applications for guided swarms besides disaster relief. Autonomous and guided drones are valuable assets in modern warfare, and advanced control systems like Micire 8217;s could improve their usability. We 8217;ve already seen how a similar technology (telestrators) are being developed by the US Air Force. Additionally, touchscreen controls could help swarms tackle indu...
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