Executive robots may help other robots 'think faster'

17 Jun 2002

Flobot the Robot can already hover on a cushion of air, manipulating objects with magnetic grippers to simulate hands-off satellite repairs in space, and the machine may soon learn to perform such tasks optimally, up to 10 times faster, thanks to a new algorithm described in the December 1996 issue of the Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control.

Methodical, slow-moving robots -- in space, or on the ground -- may become relatively 'smart' decision-makers if they're equipped with optimization algorithms that use "transformations," a mathematical device akin to a mental short-cut, says Sunil K. Agrawal, director of the Mechanical Systems Laboratory at the University of Delaware.

That's why Agrawal's research team created Flobot, a wireless 170-pound robot capable of grabbing a moving object while hovering over a table. As jets of air are released from a tank on the robot, it moves over the table and starts searching for a targeted object. Using an overhead vision system, a master computer in Agrawal's laboratory tracks the robot and directs its movements via radio signals, explains graduate student Mahu Annapragada. Two long arms, each equipped with four motors, latch onto an uncooperative mock satellite when it moves within range of the robot's grasp.