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Robotics researchers have always had to contend with two debilitating obstacles: outrageously expensive parts and the difficulty of obtaining funding outside of a small group of true hobbyists. However, robotics experts see that the winds are beginning to blow in their direction, mainly thanks to the wars and destruction that humans sow.
While the constant development of the technology is driving down the price of key parts, leading universities in the field of robotics are reporting increased federal funding, with the Department of Defense being the most generous.
The army desperately wants to reduce the number of soldiers who are killed as a result of side charges or surface to air missiles (surface to air missiles) - cheap weapons of war, which have brought down many civilians in Iraq. Many in the Pentagon believe that the answer lies in autonomous vehicles for air, sea and land.
The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University reports a 48 percent increase in federal funding since 2000 and a 117 percent increase since 1994. Most of the $24.8 million in federal funding for 2003 came from the Pentagon, institute director Chuck Thorpe said.
Corporate funding for university robotics is also up forty percent since 2000, with $7.8 million last year.
Other universities, such as the California, Virginia and Georgia Institutes of Technology, say funding for robotics has increased in recent years by fifty percent or more.
At the same time, the materials that make up the most technologically advanced parts of robots, starting with optics and ending with software, are becoming very cheap, said Dan Kara, who reviews trends in robotics in the industry.
Technologies that allow robots to notice obstacles and overcome them have made an unprecedented breakthrough, mainly because the price of CCD devices (Charge Coupled Devices - the main component of every camera), microprocessors and various sensors has dropped at the same speed that computing power and memory have increased.
"No one is reinventing the wheel anymore," Kara said. "The heart of the research in the last ten years drives the market intellectually, and now there is a lot of money, which comes from the military."
The Pentagon's research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is funding more than XNUMX robotics projects, spokeswoman Jen Walker said.
For example, DARPA granted Carnegie Mellon $5.5 million to develop the "Spinner", a five-ton combat vehicle that can operate on almost any surface under harsh conditions without a foot on the gas or a hand on the wheel.
Joel Burdick of Calcutta, an engineering professor involved in the field of robotics since the early 1980s, is using DARPA funding to develop neuroprosthetics, with which the brain can control machines, which will "give pilots a third hand, in every sense of the word," he said.
"Today the budgets come mainly from the army," Burdick said. "The projects mainly focus on applications. This is not money for initial development."
It is difficult to determine exactly how much money goes to university research, since the government contracts also go in part to companies such as Boeing, which works closely with schools such as Carnegie Mellon. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Intel are among the companies that fund research at universities or develop robotics projects themselves.
Boeing recently sent an engineer from its Phantom Works division to work full-time alongside the team at Carnegie Mellon University, said company spokesman Glen Golightly. A partnership between Boeing and Calcut is also about to begin.
John Reed worked with robotic systems for 14 years at the University of Illinois. About three years ago I was hired by "Deere and Co." To manage the smart vehicle systems, a research unit whose goal is to develop autonomous machines that can keep humans away from dangerous agricultural tasks.
"The government is allocating billions to the development of robotics, you look at it and you can't say that it won't have an impact on the commercial sector," Reid said. "The army's investment will bear fruit."
The engineers and computer people behind the machines also found themselves in the spotlight. Last month, many of them were surrounded by the cameras in California's Mojave desert, when fifteen teams lined up for a 150-mile autonomous race. The prize: a million dollars gift from DARPA.
Although no team won, the DARPA "Grand Challenge" is just one of many competitions, which will attract talents in the field of robotics from all over the country.
Robert Michaelson, a principal research engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology, organizes the annual "Aerial" international robotics competition in July.
A robotic aircraft would have to fly three kilometers towards an urban area, locate a building, enter it through a window or a hole in the roof and find a target inside. Then he will have to send an image back to the base - and all this without human intervention.
The team from Georgia has already built a robot that can fly three kilometers and identify the building and the points through which it can be broken into, Michaelson said.
"This is not a theoretical exercise," Michelson said. "This is a real experience."
However, some robotics experts fear that expectations will exceed reality, especially for those providing the cash.
It has happened before.
After robotic arms first entered the market a few decades ago, there were those who were put off by it, as the expectations from the robots did not match the technological reality of the time.
Back then, robots could only perform simple, repetitive tasks. A minor malfunction in the robot could stop an entire production line, until a human intervened.
"I think there was a tendency to exaggerate the description of what happened, but in the United States companies tried to force robotic arms into the production lines," said Burdick of Caltech. "You can't just throw robots into the production processes. You have to know how to integrate technology.”
Robotics experts battled misconceptions once again last month at DARPA's Grand Challenge.
The Carnegie Mellon robot went the furthest, before going off course about seven miles from the starting line. The vehicle from the Virginia Institute of Technology, a modified golf cart, only measured 100 yards.
"One of the guys from some big chain came up and told us, 'That must have been a big failure,' while we thought to ourselves, that was great," said Charles Reinholtz, a professor at the Virginia Institute of Technology. "Besides, our vehicle failed due to human error."
