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What's New in ISD
PerMIS 2006 was held at NIST in Gaithersburg, Maryland on August 21 - 23, 2006. PerMIS was held in conjection with the IEEE Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics Conference which was scheduled for August 22 - 24, 2006 at NIST. Making Robotic Movement of Goods More ‘Pallet-able’
Robots running amok and destroying property may be a staple in science fiction films, but they aren’t welcome in factories, warehouses and other places where automatic guided vehicle (AGV) forklifts are used. Under a cooperative research and development agreement with Transbotics, a Charlotte, N.C., AGV manufacturer, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing advanced sensor processing and modeling algorithms to help robot forklifts verify the location and orientation of pallets laden with goods. The experimental system utilizes two onboard, single scan-line LADAR devices to negotiate obstacles and hone in on warehouse pallets. (LADAR—Laser Detection and Ranging—is an optical technology which measures properties of scattered laser light to find range and other information about a distant target.) One LADAR device, located at the base of the AGV, is used as a safety sensor to detect obstacles such as humans in the forklift’s path. It also can be used to scan inside a truck’s cargo area to detect the presence of a pallet or define distances from the forklift to the truck’s inside walls. The other sensor, called the Panner, is a panning laser ranger mounted on a rotating motor at the top front of the AGV. The Panner acquires many scan lines of range data that allows the scene in front of the device to be reconstructed in various visual formats such as a pseudo-colored coded image (where colors indicate relative proximity to an object) or a 3-dimensional data point “cloud.” A computer model is then derived from the data with the output sent immediately to the AGV’s control center. This allows the robot forklift to maneuver, load and unload pallets, verify the remaining space within the truck being loaded, and track the number of pallets still needing handling. The research team recently presented the results of its visualization program at the SPIE Optics East 2006 Conference in Boston.* Transbotics is planning to implement the NIST pallet verification software on one of its AGVs in 2007 for use in real manufacturing situations. * R. Bostleman, T. Hong and T. Chang. Visualization of Pallets. Presented at the SPIE Optics East 2006 Conference. October 2006 (published online Oct. 2, 2006). Media Contact: Michael E. Newman, michael.newman@nist.gov, (301) 975-3025 Robot Wheelchair May Give Patients More Independence
Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are developing a robotic system that may offer wheelchair-dependent people independent, powered mobility and the ability, depending on patient status, to move to and from beds, chairs and toilets without assistance.* The lifting ability of the system, which is called the “HLPR Chair” (for Home Lift, Position and Rehabilitation), also should significantly reduce caregiver and patient injuries. The HLPR chair draws on mobile robotic technology developed at NIST for defense and manufacturing applications. It is built on an off-the-shelf forklift with a U-frame base on wheel-like casters and a rectangular vertical frame. The frame is small enough to pass through the typical residential bathroom. The user drives the chair using a joystick and other simple controls. The HLPR chair’s drive, steering motors, batteries and control electronics are positioned to keep its center of gravity—even when carrying a patient—within the wheelbase. This allows a person, weighing up to 300 pounds, to rotate out, from the inner chair frame, over a toilet, chair or bed while supported by torso lifts. The torso lifts lower the patient safely into the new position. The chair frame can even remain in position to continue supporting the patient from potential side, back or front fall. In addition, the proof-of-concept prototype HLPR Chair would allow stroke victims and others to keep their legs active without supporting their entire body weight. Retractable seat and foot rest, padded torso lifts for under arms (that, when raised, act like crutches) and an open frame at the bottom of the chair facilitate leg exercises. The patient, once lifted and supported by the torso lifts, can walk as the HLPR Chair moves forward at a slow pace. The current maximum speed is 27 inches per second (0.7m/s). NIST engineers plan to design the HLPR to autonomously dock with toilets, provide voice-activation capability so patients can call the HLPR from another location, and provide dial-in leg loading to limit leg forces during rehabilitation. *R. Bostelman and J. Albus. HLPR chair—A service robot for the healthcare industry. Third International Workshop on Advances in Service Robotics, Vienna, Austria, July 7, 2006. Read more at http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/healthcaremobility/ . NIST RoboCrane® Cuts Aircraft Maintenance Costs
A revolutionary robotic platform developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been adapted for the U.S. Air Force to address the critical, expensive, and nasty work of stripping old paint from large aircraft. The robot’s work platform, which “floats” in mid air suspended by a web of computer-controlled cables, promises to drastically reduce paint-stripping time per airplane, cut costs and lessen incidents of operator stress and injury. Air Force maintenance rules require that the coatings on large aircraft be stripped off and replaced every five to six years. The stripping process is difficult and hazardous, filling the air with toxic dust and vapors. The task is currently done by maintenance workers in hot, movement–inhibiting protective suits climbing on scaffolding erected around the airplane. Using the new “Aerial Multi-axis Platform” (AMP), a worker in a protected cab can operate the automated high-pressure blast nozzles of the paint-stripping machinery, moving easily around the aircraft suspended from the aircraft hanger’s ceiling. This robotic approach allows the operator to guide several concurrent nozzles, vastly improving productivity over the conventional single nozzle, hands-on approach. The AMP uses NIST’s RoboCrane® technology in which six hoist cables from three upper support points tautly support, stabilize, and maneuver the work platform. It eliminates the need for scaffolding and other ground-base equipment that is time consuming to set up and hinders other operations within the hanger. The AMP was adapted for aircraft maintenance operations by NIST in partnership with the U.S. Technology Corporation, with sponsorship from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). According to AFRL’s Manufacturing Technology program, the AMP dramatically improves the quality and productivity of the paint stripping operations—one third of the overall maintenance process. Tests demonstrate that a worker with the AMP can strip up to 10-20 square feet per minute. A single operator can comfortably work an entire eight hour shift rather than taking the frequent breaks needed with the current de-painting process. The AMP design reduces the process time to strip old paint from an aircraft by 40-50 percent, the equivalent of four to five days for a C-5 aircraft. Two production AMP systems are being installed at the Air Force’s Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia for C-130 coating removal. The technology also is expected to be of use to the commercial aircraft industry. *See www.isd.mel.nist.gov/projects/robocrane. Wearable Sensors to Improve Soldier Post-Action Reports
A soldier’s after-action mission report can sometimes leave out vital observations and experiences that could be valuable in planning future operations. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is exploring the use of soldier-worn sensors and recorders to augment a soldier’s recall and reporting capability. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is acting as an independent evaluator for the “Advanced Soldier Sensor Information System and Technology” (ASSIST) project. NIST researchers are designing tests to measure the technical capability of such information gathering devices. This week NIST is testing five different sensor systems* at the United States Army Aberdeen Test Center in Aberdeen, Md. The tests, ending May 12, involve sensor-clad soldiers on unscripted foot patrol through simulated Iraqi villages populated with “bystanders,” “shopkeepers,” and “insurgents.” The sensors are expected to capture, classify and store such data as the sound of acceleration and deceleration of vehicles, images of people (including suspicious movements that might not be seen by the soldiers), speech and specific types of weapon fire. A capacity to give GPS locations, an ability to translate Arabic signs and text into English, as well as on-command video recording also are being demonstrated in Aberdeen. Sensor system software is expected to extract keywords and create an indexed multimedia representation of information collected by different soldiers. For comparison purposes, the soldiers wearing the sensors will make an after-action report based on memory and then supplement that after-action report with information learned from the sensor data. The Aberdeen tests end the first year of ASSIST’s approximately five-year development effort. The ASSIST plan envisions increasingly sophisticated data collection systems that can learn from experiences, improving performance with accumulated knowledge. “Soldiers endure tremendous physical and psychological stresses which can make it difficult to remember details about what they experienced over prolonged missions,” said Craig Schlenoff, NIST’s ASSIST project coordinator. “We hope that ASSIST will keep our soldiers safer and increase the probability of mission success.” *Organizations participating in the May 2006 ASSIST trials included IBM Corporation with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology; Sarnoff Corporation; the University of Washington; Carnegie Mellon University and Vanderbilt University. Groups Join Forces for DHS Rescue Robot Standards
At the recommendation of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) this month asked ASTM International to work with NIST and other stakeholders to develop voluntary consensus standards for urban search and rescue (US&R) robots. ASTM will disseminate the final consensus approved standards and test methods via its Committee E54 on Homeland Security Applications. To assist this effort, NIST engineers, first responders, technology developers and robot vendors have begun to examine potential types of standards as well as tests needed to certify compliance to them. The comprehensive US&R standards drive, sponsored by DHS, is aimed at increasing federal, state and local officials' confidence in the emerging technology, spurring the purchase and deployment of the potentially life-saving devices. Participants in a series of NIST-hosted workshops to define performance requirements identified at least 13 different robot varieties that may be applicable to search and rescue, from R2D2-type machines that search for victims within collapsed buildings to aerial ledge landers and aquatic bottom crawlers. They also counted more than 100 possible individual performance requirements in the categories of human-system interaction, logistics, operating environment, and system components (which includes chassis, communications, mobility, payload, power and sensing). Additional requirements are expected to arise during the standardization process. The project Web site lists the robot categories and specific areas of inquiry at www.isd.mel.nist.gov/US&R_Robot_Standards. First responders, robot vendors and technology vendors who have suggestions for technologies to focus on or promising US&R robots to consider as well those interested in serving on the ASTM E54 standards committee, should contact Elena Messina (301) 975-3235 or usar.robots@nist.gov. Dogs and Robots Share NIST Special Test Arena
Bomb and drug sniffing dogs are regular visitors to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for training, not for emergency work. Every month as many as 10 to 20 dogs and their handlers from federal agencies as well as from local county and municipal police departments visit the arenas that NIST uses to test and evaluate urban search and rescue and explosive ordnance disposal robots. The arenas represent a building in various stages of collapse and provide a robot testing site for both pre- and post-disaster scenarios. The jumble of concrete collapsed walls and fallen debris also offers just the right challenge to sharpen the skills of the dogs who hunt for hidden drugs or patrol potential terrorist targets. Small samples of explosive materials or narcotics are first hidden amid the rubble. Then individual dogs, under the watchful eyes of their handlers who are in a sense in training as well, seek out firearms, ammunition, explosives and chemical compounds used to build explosives or drugs such as cocaine or heroin. Once the dog finds the "hide," he or she sits silently, at attention, in front of the cache. The individual dogs are trained in locating drugs or explosives, not both. Handlers must know why a dog is sitting, and in a real situation whether the find is safe to pick up. Success brings a shout of "That's my Boy," a rough, affectionate head tussle, a brief pulling match over a toy with the handler, and then the hunt goes on until all the hidden explosives or drugs are found. "A dog just wants to play," said Sergeant Rick Hawkins of the NIH Police Department who coordinates the multi-agency K-9 visits to NIST. "When we go home we look at our paycheck. A dog has his toy and that's what he works for." Hawkins' six-year-old black Labrador, Flyer, is trained to find narcotics. The police trainers appreciate having a unique indoor facility that challenges the dogs' skills and that is available on a regular basis. At the same time, the NIST robotics experts benefit from observing police techniques for systematically searching for explosives. In April, NIST experts helped with the 2005 RoboCup German Open international competition in Paderborn, Germany, that used a newly constructed version of the NIST arenas to test the performance of the latest rescue robots. A brief video
describing the training of both dogs and robots at the NIST arena
is available at: http://realex.nist.gov:8080/ramgen/robot2.smi.
(Requires
RealPlayer) Department of Homeland
Security
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Wiley
Series on Intelligent Systems
Metrology
Interoperability Standards