Mobile robot - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of movement in a given environment.

Overview

Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. In contrast, industrial robots usually consist of a jointed arm (multi-linked manipulator) and gripper assembly (or end effector

Robot end effector

In robotics, an end effector is the device at the end of a robotic arm, designed to interact with the environment. The exact nature of this device depends on the application of the robot....

) that is attached to a fixed surface.

Mobile robots are the focus of a great deal of current research and almost every major university has one or more labs that focus on mobile robot research. Mobile robots are also found in industry, military and security environments. They also appear as consumer products, for entertainment or to perform certain tasks like vacuum, gardening and some other common household tasks.

Classification

Mobile robots may be classified by:

The environment in which they travel:
- Land or home robots. They are most commonly wheeled, but also include legged robot
  Legged robot
  thumb|A [[Hexapod |hexapod robot]].Legged robots are a type of mobile robot. They are somewhat a recent innovation in robotics. However, many or all bipedal models are not practical seeing as they are cumbersome and slow. Most successful legged robots have 4 or 6 legs for further stability...
  
  s with two or more legs (humanoid
  Humanoid robot
  A humanoid robot or an anthropomorphic robot is a robot with its overall appearance, based on that of the human body, allowing interaction with made-for-human tools or environments. In general humanoid robots have a torso with a head, two arms and two legs, although some forms of humanoid robots...
  
  , or resembling animals or insects).
- Aerial robots are usually referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
- Underwater robots are usually called autonomous underwater vehicles
  Autonomous Underwater Vehicle
  An autonomous underwater vehicle is a robot which travels underwater without requiring input from an operator. AUVs constitute part of a larger group of undersea systems known as unmanned underwater vehicles, a classification that includes non-autonomous remotely operated underwater vehicles...
  
  (AUVs)
- Polar robots, designed to navigate icy, crevasse
  Crevasse
  A crevasse is a deep crack in an ice sheet rhys glacier . Crevasses form as a result of the movement and resulting stress associated with the sheer stress generated when two semi-rigid pieces above a plastic substrate have different rates of movement...
  
  filled environments
The device they use to move, mainly:
- Legged robot
  Legged robot
  thumb|A [[Hexapod |hexapod robot]].Legged robots are a type of mobile robot. They are somewhat a recent innovation in robotics. However, many or all bipedal models are not practical seeing as they are cumbersome and slow. Most successful legged robots have 4 or 6 legs for further stability...
  
  : human-like leg
  Human leg
  The human leg is the entire lower extremity or limb of the human body, including the foot, thigh and even the hip or gluteal region; however, the precise definition in human anatomy refers only to the section of the lower limb extending from the knee to the ankle.Legs are used for standing,...
  
  s (i.e. an android) or animal-like leg
  Leg
  Łęg may refer to the following places in Poland:*A former name for the town of Ełk *Part of the Czyżyny district of Kraków*Łęg, Pleszew County in Greater Poland Voivodeship...
  
  s.
- Wheel
  Wheel
  A wheel is a device that allows heavy objects to be moved easily through rotating on an axle through its center, facilitating movement or transportation while supporting a load, or performing labor in machines. Common examples found in transport applications. A wheel, together with an axle,...
  
  ed robot.
- Tracks
  Caterpillar track
  Continuous tracks or caterpillar tracks are a system of vehicle propulsion in which modular metal plates linked into a continuous band are driven by two or more wheels...
  
  .

Manual remote or tele-op

A manually tele-op'd robot is totally under control of a driver with a joystick or other control device. The device may be plugged directly into the robot, may be a wireless joystick, or may be an accessory to a wireless computer or other controller. A tele-op'd robot is typically used to keep the operator out of harm's way. Examples of manual remote robots include Robotics Design's

Robotics Design

Robotics Design Inc. is a company that designs and builds modular robots, founded and incorporated in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1997. The company produces mobile robots, robotic manipulators and manual arms as well as custom solutions using modular robotic technology...

ANATROLLER ARI-100 and ARI-50, Foster-Miller's Talon, iRobot's

IRobot

iRobot Corporation is an American advanced technology company founded in 1990 and incorporated in Delaware in 2000, the iRobot Corporation designs robots such as an autonomous home vacuum cleaner , the Scooba that scrubs and cleans hard floors, and military and police robots, such as the PackBot...

PackBot, and KumoTek's MK-705 Roosterbot.

Guarded tele-op

A guarded tele-op robot has the ability to sense and avoid obstacles but will otherwise navigate as driven, like a robot under manual tele-op. Few if any mobile robots offer only guarded tele-op. (See Sliding Autonomy below.)

Line-following robot

Some of the earliest Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) were line following mobile robots. They might follow a visual line painted or embedded in the floor or ceiling or an electrical wire in the floor. Most of these robots operated a simple "keep the line in the center sensor" algorithm. They could not circumnavigate obstacles; they just stopped and waited when something blocked their path. Many examples of such vehicles are still sold, by Transbotics, FMC, Egemin, HK Systems and many other companies.

Autonomously randomized robot

Autonomous robots with random motion basically bounce off walls, whether those walls are sensed

Autonomously guided robot

An autonomously guided robot knows at least some information about where it is and how to reach various goals and or waypoints along the way. "Localization" or knowledge of its current location, is calculated by one or more means, using sensors such motor encoders, vision, Stereopsis

Stereopsis

Stereopsis refers to impression of depth that is perceived when a scene is viewed with both eyes by someone with normal binocular vision. Binocular viewing of a scene creates two slightly different images of the scene in the two eyes due the the eyes' different positions on the head...

, lasers and global positioning systems. Positioning systems often use triangulation, relative position and/or Monte-Carlo/Markov localization to determine the location and orientation of the platform, from which it can plan a path to its next waypoint or goal. It can gather sensor readings that are time- and location-stamped, so that a hospital, for instance, can know exactly when and where radiation levels exceeded permissible levels. Such robots are often part of the wireless enterprise network, interfaced with other sensing and control systems in the building. For instance, the PatrolBot

PatrolBot

PatrolBot is a programmable autonomous general purpose service robot rover built by MobileRobots Inc. PatrolBots are manufactured in various configurations and serve as bases for companies developing delivery robots, security robots, environmental monitoring rovers, robot guides and other indoor...

security robot responds to alarms, operates elevators and notifies the command center when an incident arises. Other autonomously guided robots include the SpeciMinder and the Tug delivery robots for hospital labs, though the latter actually has people at the ready to drive the robot remotely when its autonomy fails. The Tug sends a letter to its tech support person, who then takes the helm and steers it over the Internet by looking through a camera low in the base of the robot.

Sliding autonomy

More capable robots combine multiple levels of navigation under a system called sliding autonomy. Most autonomously guided robots, such as the HelpMate hospital robot, also offer a manual mode. The Motivity autonomous robot operating system, which is used in the ADAM, PatrolBot, SpeciMinder, MapperBot and a number of other robots, offers full sliding autonomy, from manual to guarded to autonomous modes. Also see Autonomous robot

Autonomous robot

Autonomous robots are robots that can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. Many kinds of robots have some degree of autonomy. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways...

History

Date	Developments
1939–1945	During World War II World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis... the first mobile robots emerged as a result of technical advances on a number of relatively new research fields like computer science Computer science Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems... and cybernetics Cybernetics Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form... . They were mostly flying bombs. Examples are smart bombs that only detonate within a certain range of the target, the use of guiding systems and radar control. The V1 V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile.... and V2 V-2 rocket The V-2 rocket , technical name Aggregat-4 , was a ballistic missile that was developed at the beginning of the Second World War in Germany, specifically targeted at London and later Antwerp. The liquid-propellant rocket was the world's first long-range combat-ballistic missile and first known... rockets had a crude 'autopilot' and automatic detonation systems. They were the predecessors of modern cruise missile Cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy... s.
1948–1949	W. Grey Walter William Grey Walter W. Grey Walter was a neurophysiologist and robotician.-Overview:Walter was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1910. His ancestry was German/British on his father's side, and American/British on his mother's side. He was brought to England in 1915, and educated at Westminster School and afterwards... builds Elmer and Elsie, two autonomous robots called Machina Speculatrix because these robots liked to explore their environment. Elmer and Elsie were each equipped with a light sensor. If they found a light source they would move towards it, avoiding or moving obstacles on their way. These robot Robot A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or... s demonstrated that complex behaviour could arise from a simple design. Elmer and Elsie only had the equivalent of two nerve cells. http://www.ias.uwe.ac.uk/Robots/gwonline/gwonline.html
1961–1963	The Johns Hopkins University develops 'Beast Johns Hopkins Beast The Johns Hopkins Beast was an early robot built in the 1960s at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The machine had a rudimentary intelligence and the ability to survive on its own. As it wandered through the white halls of the laboratory, it would seek black wall outlets.... '. Beast used a sonar to move around. When its batteries ran low it would find a power socket and plug itself in.
1969	Mowbot was the very first robot that would automatically mow the lawn. http://www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/talks/Extras/mowbot.1969.gif
1970	The Stanford Cart line follower was a mobile robot that was able to follow a white line, using a camera Camera A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images... to see. It was radio linked to a large mainframe Mainframe computer Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the... that made the calculations. At about the same time (1966–1972) the Stanford Research Institute is building and doing research on Shakey the Robot Shakey the Robot Shakey the Robot was the first general-purpose mobile robot to be able to reason about its own actions. While other robots would have to be instructed on each individual step of completing a larger task, Shakey could analyze the command and break it down into basic chunks by itself... , a robot named after its jerky motion. Shakey had a camera Camera A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images... , a rangefinder Rangefinder A rangefinder is a device that measures distance from the observer to a target, for the purposes of surveying, determining focus in photography, or accurately aiming a weapon. Some devices use active methods to measure ; others measure distance using trigonometry... , bump sensors and a radio link. Shakey was the first robot that could reason about its actions. This means that Shakey Shakey the Robot Shakey the Robot was the first general-purpose mobile robot to be able to reason about its own actions. While other robots would have to be instructed on each individual step of completing a larger task, Shakey could analyze the command and break it down into basic chunks by itself... could be given very general commands, and that the robot would figure out the necessary steps to accomplish the given task. The Soviet Union explores the surface of the Moon Moon The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more... with Lunokhod 1 Lunokhod 1 Lunokhod 1 was the first of two unmanned lunar rovers landed on the Moon by the Soviet Union as part of its Lunokhod program. The spacecraft which carried Lunokhod 1 was named Luna 17... , a lunar rover.
1976	In its Viking program Viking program The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface... the NASA NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research... sends two unmanned spacecrafts to Mars Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance... .
1980	The interest of the public in robots rises, resulting in robots that could be purchased for home use. These robots served entertainment or educational purposes. Examples include the RB5X RB5X The RB5X is a cylinder-shaped robot with an arm and a transparent, dome-shaped top. It has an RS-232 communications interface. It was first released circa 1983. Its inputs include eight bumper panels, a photodiode and a sonic transducer. The robot learns from experience.The robot was often given... , which still exists today and the HERO HERO (robot) HERO is the name of several educational robots sold by Heathkit during the 1980s. The Heath Company began the HERO 1 project in October 1979. The first units were available in 1982. Models included the HERO 1, HERO Jr., and HERO 2000. All three were available as kits, or for more money,... series. The Stanford Cart is now able to navigate its way through obstacle courses and make maps of its environment.
Early 1980s	The team of Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dieter Dickmanns is a former professor at Bundeswehr University Munich , and a pioneer of dynamic computer vision and of driverless cars. Dickmanns has been visiting professor to CalTech, Pasadena, and to MIT, Boston teaching courses on 'dynamic vision'.- Biography :Dickmanns was born in 1936... at Bundeswehr University Munich builds the first robot cars, driving up to 55 mph on empty streets.
1987	Hughes Research Laboratories Hughes Research Laboratories HRL Laboratories , was the research arm of the Hughes Aircraft Company. Its dedicated research center was established in 1960 in Malibu... demonstrates the first cross-country map and sensor-based autonomous operation of a robotic vehicle.
1989	Mark Tilden Mark Tilden Mark W. Tilden is perhaps best known for his invention of BEAM robotics and the WowWee Robosapien humanoid robot. He is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a... invents BEAM robotics BEAM robotics The word "beam" in BEAM robotics is an acronym for Biology, Electronics, Aesthetics, and Mechanics. This is a term that refers to a style of robotics... .
1990s	Joseph Engelberger Joseph Engelberger Joseph F. Engelberger is a physicist, engineer and entrepreneur who is referred to as the "Father of Robotics". Licensing the original patent awarded to inventor George Devol, Engelberger developed the first industrial robot in the United States, the Unimate, in the 1950s... , father of the industrial robotic arm, works with colleagues to design the first commercially available autonomous mobile hospital robots, sold by Helpmate. The US Department of Defense funds the MDARS-I project, based on the Cybermotion indoor security robot.
1991	Edo. Franzi, André Guignard André Guignard André Guignard is a Swiss engineer initially educated as a watchmaker. He is the creator of the mechanic of the Khepera, the S-bot and several other mobile robots.... and Francesco Mondada Francesco Mondada Francesco Mondada is a Swiss researcher in artificial intelligence and robotics. He is one of the creators of the Khepera, the S-bot and the e-puck mobile robots. He got a Master's degree in Microengineering at the EPFL in 1991 and a Ph.D. degree in 1997.He was the director of from its creation... developed Khepera Khepera mobile robot The Khepera is a small differential wheeled mobile robot that was developed at the LAMI laboratory of Prof. Jean-Daniel Nicoud at EPFL in the mid '90s. It was developed by Edo... , an autonomous small mobile robot intended for research activities. The project was supported by the LAMI-EPFL lab.
1993–1994	Dante I http://www.ri.cmu.edu/projects/project_255.html and Dante II http://www.ri.cmu.edu/projects/project_163.html were developed by Carnegie Mellon University. Both were walking robots used to explore live volcanoes.
1994	With guests onboard, the twin robot vehicles VaMP VaMP The VaMP driverless car was one of the first truly autonomous cars along with its twin vehicle, the VITA-2. They were able to drive in heavy traffic for long distances without human intervention, using computer vision to recognize rapidly moving obstacles such as other cars, and automatically... and VITA-2 of Daimler-Benz Daimler-Benz Daimler-Benz AG was a German manufacturer of automobiles, motor vehicles, and internal combustion engines; founded in 1926. An Agreement of Mutual Interest - which was valid until year 2000 - was signed on 1 May 1924 between Karl Benz's Benz & Cie., and Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, which had... and Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dieter Dickmanns is a former professor at Bundeswehr University Munich , and a pioneer of dynamic computer vision and of driverless cars. Dickmanns has been visiting professor to CalTech, Pasadena, and to MIT, Boston teaching courses on 'dynamic vision'.- Biography :Dickmanns was born in 1936... of UniBwM drive more than one thousand kilometers on a Paris three-lane highway in standard heavy traffic at speeds up to 130 km/h. They demonstrate autonomous driving in free lanes, convoy driving, and lane changes left and right with autonomous passing of other cars.
1995	Semi-autonomous ALVINN steered a car coast-to-coast under computer control for all but about 50 of the 2850 miles. Throttle and brakes, however, were controlled by a human driver.
1995	In the same year, one of Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dickmanns Ernst Dieter Dickmanns is a former professor at Bundeswehr University Munich , and a pioneer of dynamic computer vision and of driverless cars. Dickmanns has been visiting professor to CalTech, Pasadena, and to MIT, Boston teaching courses on 'dynamic vision'.- Biography :Dickmanns was born in 1936... ' robot cars (with robot-controlled throttle and brakes) drove more than 1000 miles from Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... to Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region... and back, in traffic, at up to 120 mph, occasionally executing maneuvers to pass other cars (only in a few critical situations a safety driver took over). Active vision was used to deal with rapidly changing street scenes.
1995	The Pioneer programmable mobile robot becomes commercially available at an affordable price, enabling a widespread increase in robotics research and university study over the next decade as mobile robotics becomes a standard part of the university curriculum.
1996–1997	NASA NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research... sends the Mars Pathfinder Mars Pathfinder Mars Pathfinder was an American spacecraft that landed a base station with roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner.Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a... with its rover Sojourner to Mars Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance... . The rover explores the surface, commanded from earth Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets... . Sojourner was equipped with a hazard avoidance system. This enabled Sojourner to autonomously find it s way through unknown martian terrain.
1999	Sony Sony , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues.... introduces Aibo AIBO AIBO was one of several types of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony... , a robotic dog capable of seeing, walking and interacting with its environment. The PackBot PackBot PackBot is a series of military robots by iRobot. More than 2000 PackBots are currently on station in Iraq and Afghanistan, with hundreds more on the way.-Current PackBot 510 variants:... remote-controlled military mobile robot is introduced.
2001	Start of the Swarm-bots project. Swarm bots Swarm robotics Swarm robotics is a new approach to the coordination of multirobot systems which consist of large numbers of mostly simple physical robots. It is supposed that a desired collective behavior emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment... resemble insect colonies. Typically they consist of a large number of individual simple robots S-bot mobile robot The s-bot is a small differential wheeled mobile robot developed at the LIS at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland between 2001 and 2004. Targeted to swarm robotics, a field of artificial intelligence, it was developed within the Swarm-bots project, a Future and Emerging Technologies project... , that can interact with each other and together perform complex tasks. http://www.swarm-bots.org/
2002	Appears Roomba Roomba The Roomba is a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners sold by iRobot. Under normal operating conditions, it is able to navigate a living space and common obstacles while vacuuming the floor... , a domestic Domestic robot A domestic robot is a robot used for household chores. Thus far, there are only a few limited models, though science fiction writers and other speculators have suggested that they could become more common in the future... autonomous mobile robot Autonomous robot Autonomous robots are robots that can perform desired tasks in unstructured environments without continuous human guidance. Many kinds of robots have some degree of autonomy. Different robots can be autonomous in different ways... that cleans the floor.
2003	Axxon Robotics purchases Intellibot, manufacturer of a line of commercial robots that scrub, vacuum, and sweep floors in hospitals, office buildings and other commercial buildings. Floor care robots from Intellibot Robotics LLC operate completely autonomously, mapping their environment and using an array of sensors for navigation an obstacle avoidance.
2004	Robosapien RoboSapien RoboSapien is a toy-like biomorphic robot designed by Mark Tilden and produced by WowWee toys. The RoboSapien is preprogrammed with moves, and also can be controlled by an infrared remote control included with the toy, or by either a personal computer equipped with an infrared transmitter, and an... , a biomorphic toy robot designed by Mark Tilden Mark Tilden Mark W. Tilden is perhaps best known for his invention of BEAM robotics and the WowWee Robosapien humanoid robot. He is a robotics physicist who produces complex robotic movements from simple analog logic circuits, often with discrete electronic components, and usually without a... is commercially available. In 'The Centibots Project' 100 autonomous robots work together to make a map of an unknown environment and search for objects within the environment. http://www.ai.sri.com/centibots/ In the first DARPA Grand Challenge DARPA Grand Challenge The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense... competition, fully autonomous vehicles compete against each other on a desert course.
2005	Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics is an engineering and robotics design company best known for the development of BigDog, a quadruped robot designed for the U.S. military with funding from DARPA, and DI-Guy, COTS software for realistic human simulation... creates a quadruped robot BigDog BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. BigDog is long, stands tall, and weighs , about the size of a small mule. It is capable of traversing... intended to carry heavy loads across terrain too rough for vehicles.
2006	Sony Sony , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues.... stops making Aibo AIBO AIBO was one of several types of robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony... and HelpMate halts production, but a lower-cost PatrolBot PatrolBot PatrolBot is a programmable autonomous general purpose service robot rover built by MobileRobots Inc. PatrolBots are manufactured in various configurations and serve as bases for companies developing delivery robots, security robots, environmental monitoring rovers, robot guides and other indoor... customizable autonomous service robot Service robot Service robots assist human beings, typically by performing a job that is dirty, dull, distant, dangerous or repetitive, including household chores. They typically are autonomous and/or operated by a build in control system, with manual override options.... system becomes available as mobile robots continue the struggle to become commercially viable. The US Department of Defense drops the MDARS-I project, but funds MDARS-E, an autonomous field robot. TALON-Sword, the first commercially available robot with grenade launcher and other integrated weapons options, is released. http://www.foster-miller.com/literature/documents/Weaponized_Talon.pdf. Honda's Asimo learns to run and climb stairs.
2007	History is made with the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge, with six vehicles autonomously completing a complex course involving manned vehicles and obstacles. Kiva Systems Kiva Systems Kiva Systems is a company that makes order fulfillment systems that use mobile robots for warehouse automation. Its material handling systems are used by Staples, Walgreens, GAP, Crate and Barrel, Toys "R" Us and Gilt Groupe, among others.-Overview:... clever robots proliferate in distribution operations; these smart shelving units sort themselves according to the popularity of their contents. The Tug becomes a popular means for hospitals to move large cabinets of stock from place to place, while the Speci-Minder http://www.speciminder.com/ with Motivity begins carrying blood and other patient samples from nurses' stations to various labs. Seekur, the first widely available, non-military outdoor service robot, pulls a 3-ton vehicle across a parking lot http://www.mobilerobots.com/TowingMed.mov, drives autonomously indoors and begins learning how to navigate itself outside. Meanwhile, PatrolBot learns to follow people and detect doors that are ajar.
2008	Boston Dynamics released video footage of a new generation BigDog BigDog BigDog is a dynamically stable quadruped robot created in 2005 by Boston Dynamics with Foster-Miller, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station. BigDog is long, stands tall, and weighs , about the size of a small mule. It is capable of traversing... able to walk on icy terrain and recover its balance when kicked from the side.

External links

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