If you saw last summer’s science fiction/action movie Pacific Rim, then you will remember the gigantic humanoid robots called Jaegers, which were created to fit the monsters which had emerged from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. The Jaegers are controlled by two human pilots through a “neural bridge.” While Pacific Rim is a science fiction movie, the technology to allow humans to control robots remotely is very much grounded in reality and is an active area of research. Recently, a group at Florida International University (FIU) teamed up with the U.S. Navy lieutenant commander to build a telerobotics system that could be used in law enforcement.
Telerobotics refers to the control of robots from a remote location, and is not a completely new idea in the field of robotics. In its more basic form, telepresence robots have been used in office settings to promote communication and collaboration when a person cannot physically travel to a location. Several companies have developed various forms of these robots, from robots that perch on a motorized stand on a table top and allow the user to “look” around the room, to movable displays that can actually drive and move around an office. More advanced forms of telerobots include remotely operated underwater vehicles which are used to explore the deep ocean. NASA is actively researching ways that telerobotics could be used for space and planetary exploration.
The TeleBot project at FIU began in 2012 when Lieutenant Commander Jeremy Robins of the US Navy Reserves donated $20,000 to the Discovery Lab, as well as secured the loan of two robots from the Institute for Human Machine and Cognition. Robins’ vision was to create a robot that would allow disabled law enforcement personnel and combat veterans to return to their former duties. A team made up mostly of undergraduate students worked for over 18 months to create a robot that could be controlled remotely and interact with other people. The students built a prototype that stands at 6 feet tall and weighs approximately 75 pounds. Cameras on the robot allow the user to see what the robot sees using an Occulus Rift headset, and specialized sensors allow the user move and control the robot. While the Discovery Lab team has successfully created a working prototype, more work needs to be done before such a robot could actually be sent out into the streets. Given the number of disabled military veterans and police officers however (according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, in 2012 over 3.5 million veterans received disability compensation), the TeleBot is a promising development towards helping injured personnel return to the workforce.