I went to the US headquarters of iRobot at the forefront of robot business and covered research and development sites

Speaking of a robot is an industrial thing like an arm of an assembly line or a thing to dance a dance through a demonstration of a company, from entering the battlefield from the home to the battlefield and entering a place where work is done I develop and sell robots that I can doIRobotA company. I went to the company's office this time and was able to shoot the prototype etc. under development, so I will report the detail.

IRobot Corporation: Robots that Make a Difference
http://www.irobot.com/us/

The headquarters of iRobot is Bedford in Massachusetts.

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There is only a big road running in front of the company, there is not anything else. It is headquartered in the suburbs that it takes more than 30 minutes by car to travel even from the nearest big city Boston.


The building is like this.


A building shining in the morning sun.


A sign written "iRobot".


I will head to the entrance.


Arrived at reception. Since it is also a company dealing with military robots, the identity check is solid and it was necessary to submit passport etc. in the interview.


This time I cooperated with Dr. Chris Jones, who is director of iRobot's research and development team.


He currently conducts research mainly to adapt the robot into the human living environment, so to make it soft so as not to hurt even if a robot's arm hit a person, or to pick up surrounding objects with a camera We are developing technology to make it recognizable. In this time I was able to shoot the actual machine related to that part. As for some robots,DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Project Planning Bureau), photographing by outside people is forbidden, so I uploaded to YouTube what I uploaded to YouTube after receiving the demonstration video shot by iRobot.

◆Air Arm

A new technology under development is a robotic arm that swells with air.



When I touch it it is a tactile feel like a rubber boat made with Bunibuni and it is exquisite hardness that it does not lead to major injury even if it collides with people by any chance although it has sufficient strength to hold something.


Portable by being caught various objects in this part.


Actually inflate the arm with air, carry PET bottles, and drag the Attache case and move it in the following movies.

How the robot arm "Air Arm" bulging with air works - YouTube


A prototype of a spider robot whose whole body was made of the same structure as an air arm.



If you grasp the part of the leg gently it will collapse.


A robot equipped with such an air arm is superior not only to safety when hitting a human being but also in terms of being capable of mass production at a lower cost compared to metal parts and being easy to scale up about. In theory, it seems to be able to operate with the size of the large-sized track position expanded by inflating a robot that is stored in a size that can be placed on the pickup truck bed.

Also, if you are not asking for too much strength, you can also adjust the length easily by adding a joint with a zipper.



◆Universal gripper

Robot's hand "Universal Gripper" stuffs materials like bead cushions in rubber bags and lifts objects of almost any shape by taking in and out the air inside.


The one on the left side of the photo is the pump unit that puts in and out the air, and the one on the right side is the hand part.


It is possible to grasp it by wrapping it by pushing it gutually against the object you want to lift and pulling out air.



You can see the way the door opens by actually holding the door knob in the following movie.

How to open a door with a universal robot hand "Universal Gripper" - YouTube


Also, please use the following movie to demonstrate the robot that made it possible to move around while swelling and shrinking by applying the same mechanism.

A soft body robot "JamBots" swelling and deforming with air moves with Gnyagna - YouTube


◆Soft robot hand

Most commonly used robot arms are made of hard materials such as metal and plastic, but when used in powerful machines, when you try to grasp something, even if it moves by 1 mm, the object and floor , It could hurt the desk etc. Also, if strong force is added, the possibility of damage to the robot body will also increase.

Therefore, research is being carried out to eliminate the possibility of hurting surrounding objects or breaking themselves by adopting rubber for robot hands to achieve both moderate strength and softness. In the demo movie below, you can see that it continues to operate without any break even if you hit the ball of the baseball possessed by the robot hand with a bat.

Strength test of hitting a ball held by three finger robot arm with a bat - YouTube


◆Development of a new type endless track for running wasteland

A robot equipped with an endless track (caterpillar) is used when traveling on a rough ground or a place where the galaxy is falling, but if the suspension is not enough, it will overturn or bounce and it will be stable It is difficult to drive at speed. So development is being promoted, a compact infinite track with built-in suspension as below.


It transmits power with a large wheel and a small wheel plays a role of suspension.


Such a structure is common in large tanks and construction vehicles equipped with powerful internal combustion engines and metal crawler tracks, but with a small robot, the crawler belt stops or comes off just by pebbles and the like being caught It seems that many applications are difficult.


Looking at the test machine from the front like this.


You can see that when you push it gently with your hands the suspension is shrinking.


Please check the following movie to see how it actually runs on the wasteland and runs over the garret without slowing down the speed.

Demonstration of a machine equipped with an infinite track for small robots with excellent ability to travel on rough terrain - YouTube


◆Research on artificial intelligence

At iRobot, it seems to have a goal of making it possible for humans to communicate with humans as well as to communicate with humans, but for that purpose, first of all it is necessary for robots to be able to recognize surrounding environments like humans There is development of technology to grasp various objects with the camera and to understand what it is.

If you are a human you can understand whether the car is white, black, small or big, or even a slightly different shape, as long as you say "clean the other side of this car" Actually, it is quite difficult to take for a robot. People are standing in front of the car or you can not recognize even if the direction you are looking at is different, you can not easily grasp the object like a human being. In the following movies, as a result of experiments that have been advanced to overcome such walls, let the computer recognize models of cars and horses on Kurukuru and rotating table, from all angles, and to horses and horses You can see that you can recognize the person who got on the car separately.

A state of object recognition test by artificial intelligence - YouTube


So, in Japan, robot vacuum cleaner "rumbaAlthough iRobot has a strong impression of the company, the headquarters has developed a wide range of products ranging from military use to home use, and is conducting various studies ranging from robotic arms to infinite orbits and artificial intelligence.

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From the wrecked military robot to the founder of the rumba IRobot's history has seen the whole museum and dining hall at the US headquarters - GIGAZINE