Thursday
October 23, 2008
3:50 pm
The Pentagon is looking for contractors to provide a “Multi-Robot Pursuit System” that will let packs of robots “search for and detect a non-cooperative human”. The Terminator could be a reality sooner than you think, so watch your back. From dodsbir.net:
| Proposals Accepted: |
|
| Program: |
SBIR |
| Topic Num: |
A08-204 (Army) |
| Title: |
Multi-Robot Pursuit System |
| Research & Technical Areas: |
Ground/Sea Vehicles |
|
| Acquisition Program: |
|
| Objective: |
Develop a software and sensor package to enable a team of robots to search for and detect human presence in an indoor environment. |
| Description: |
…There has also been significant research in the game theory community involving pursuit/evasion scenarios. This topic seeks to merge these research areas and develop a software/hardware suit that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject, while minimizing the chances of missing the subject. If the operator is an active member of the search team, the software should minimize the chance that the operator may encounter the subject. As a simplification, the building layout could be given, although operating in an unknown environment with unknown obstacles is more realistic. The latter case should be studied at least in simulation. The software should maintain awareness of line-of-sight, as well as communication and sensor limits. It will be necessary to determine an appropriate sensor suite that can reliably detect human presence and is suitable for implementation on small robotic platforms. Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots. |
