Robot door greeters first step toward robot Marines?
The Navy is funding robotic door greeters to learn more about potential futuristic training options for the Marine Corps.
Federal News Radio
More than 2,000 years ago, ancient Greeks spoke of a giant made of bronze named Talos. He was a gift from Zeus, ruler of the Greek gods, for the lovely Phoenician Europa. Three times a day, the automaton would circle the island of Crete and throw boulders at approaching ships to protect the jealous god’s love interest — who was one of many.
Today, the Office of Naval Research is funding the creation of another automaton to watch over a lobby at the University of Central Florida.
UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training will build a robotic lobby greeter as part of the Marine Corps’ Science and Technology Strategic Plan. A human will control the robot from a remote location and interact with visitors to see how “human” the experience feels. The “lobby greeter” study, as ONR calls it, will last for several weeks and provide a baseline for human simulators the Marine Corps can use in more complex situations.
The Marine Corps wants to upgrade its training options and hopes to one day use robots and other complex technologies to give its Marines “the most realistic, effective and affordable training [possible],” wrote the branch in a release.
A robotic lobby greeter falls under a conceptual framework the branch calls AMITIES, or Avatar Mediated Interactive Training and Individualized Experience System. The goal is to develop surrogate humans people can control and “inhabit” from remote locations.
“If human role players are not available because of cost or other reasons, this research will help us understand the type of surrogate to replace them, so that the level of training is not diminished,” said Dr. Peter Squire, an ONR program officer.
ONR is already demonstrating how to use robots for training exercises, including robots that mimic the actions of both a victim and aggressor in a sexual assault scenario. Another robot with changeable skin colors and different facial expressions reenacted a scene in which an Afghan village elder demanded compensation after someone killed his goats.
The S&T Strategic Plan is structured around a detailed Web of collaboration. The collaboration includes industry partners, like the University of Central Florida, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Academic institutions are seeing major financial benefits from research collaborations with the Defense Department. By itself, the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program, which is focused on science education, medical training and readiness, divvied out almost $40 million to schools around the nation in fiscal 2015.
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