14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo, with its Wii console, has managed to capture a vast segment of the market in all the countries it was deployed to, mainly due to the fact that the controls on its remote-controllers, the Wiimotes, are very intuitive and make for a pleasant game play. Now, the US military is looking into them as a novel way to control fully-artificial robots on the battlefield, without having to assign two people to look in a display all the time, as with previous robots.
The Wiimote features sensors, motion detectors and other controls that allow it to interpret the way people move their hands, while playing. Those actions are replicated by the on-screen characters, which is exactly what the US Army, Foster-Miller, and iRobot want to get from their new design. A robot capable of interpreting input from a controller from far away that can also fulfill a large number of tasks.
So far, the task of disarming a bomb, for example, required a great deal of experience on the part of the handler, as well as intense focusing on the screen displaying the images the on-board camera captured of the suspect device. Some 95 percent of the operator's attention span was on the display, which rendered him extremely vulnerable to threats from his immediate vicinity. Thus, another man had to be stationed along with him, for protection.
This translates into increased costs for the military, which is currently looking at stamping that out. With the new robots, tasks such as disarming a bomb or sweeping for mines are easier, while the operator of the device can also take a look at what's around him, thus minimizing the risk of being caught or surprised off-guard.
"You really need two people to run the current system; one to run it, another to guard that person. With the Wii remote you can give the soldier operating the robot more awareness of his surroundings. I think you'll be seeing a lot more new and unique ways to control things like military robot, especially as sensors and other technologies are miniaturized. But we are still a long way from the popular image of fully autonomous robots walking around," argues Jason Slater, a Foster Miller robot manufacturer representative.