__Meet iRobot, the smartest webcam on wheels __
The home robot à la The Jetsons isn't here yet, but we're closer to this cozy sci-fi staple than you might think. In November, the Massachusetts-based iRobot Corporation - the company behind Hasbro's animatronic My Real Baby doll - will start selling the first consumer bot that's meant to be more than just a toy. It looks like E.T. crossed with an Electrolux vacuum cleaner, and, clearly, it's following in the pawsteps of Aibo, Sony's robodog phenom. But compared to Aibo, the iRobot (which bears the same name as its corporate parent) has a lot more mobility, smarts, and, most important, programmability. In fact, with its open source software, the iRobot has been designed to encourage hackers and hobbyists to dive right in.
This ungainly appliance opens a new chapter in home robotics: telepresence. With a broadband-enabled PC acting as the remote control, users can direct the robot through the Net, while also taking in its sensory data. In other words, you can bodysnatch your iRobot, seeing what it sees and going where it goes, chatting up folks all along the way.
"The iRobot's the first off-the-shelf Internet telerobot," says Ken Goldberg, a professor of robotics at UC Berkeley and editor of the recent book The Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the Internet. "As webcams extended our eyes, the iRobot will extend our legs."
Though the iRobot will initially appeal to early adopters willing to shell out around $3,500, the iRobot Corporation hopes its machine will eventually grow into a major consumer commodity - at once a toy, an appliance, a mobile computer, and a videophone-cum-spycam.
The iRobot is an appealing if somewhat hefty machine, with an eight-wheeled base, a long neck, and a clear visored head that contains an independently rotating, pan-tilt camera. Along with the camera, the iRobot's plastic carapace packs in six motors, a microphone, speakers, and a radio transceiver - all driven by an onboard Pentium-class processor running Red Hat Linux. Each iRobot is also outfitted with an Apache Web server and its own IP address, which enables the robot to communicate directly with the Net.
This is good news for me, because even though I live in San Francisco, I get to demo the bot without hopping on a plane to company headquarters outside of Boston. First I log onto the corporate server and call up a password-protected interface to an iRobot prototype. After a few moments of hassle, I find myself looking at three iRobot roboticists kicking back on a couch: Helen Greiner, president of iRobot; Dave Barrett, the project manager for the robot; and lead programmer Jim Allard. A vase of flowers rests on a low table, and a coatrack stands in the corner.
The interface looks like your typical videoconference screen, with one big difference: There's a little joystick control panel below the image. I hit the Forward button and my viewpoint almost immediately cruises toward the couch. Instantly, in a basic, nearly animal way, I realize I'm not simply looking out of a remote cam. Instead, I'm inside - if "inside" is the right word - a toddler-sized, tetherless robot. I'm not just looking at this scene; I'm there, and I want to explore.
"The iRobot is the first practical robot for the masses," says Greiner, applying a little soft sell as I make my way awkwardly toward the couch. "The iRobot's fun, and it's useful."
It's also relatively smart - sensing an obstacle, my bot-body freezes in its tracks, preventing me from clumsily knocking over the vase. Turning to my right, I see what I suspect are others of my kind sitting in the corner. Abandoning the joystick, I click directly on the patch of floor where I want to go, and I automatically glide toward the spot.
My prototype comrades are all inactive at the moment, but Greiner assures me that when the first models roll into homes, they'll be ready to perform a few tricks under their own steam. Right out of the box, the thing will look for humans and chase around its colored ball. When it gets tuckered out, it will find its own way to a recharge station. With your help, the iRobot will use its sonar to create a map of your abode that you can later use to direct its movements.
The machine will also have a modifiable personality of sorts, enabling you to tune its level of enthusiasm from the equivalent of a chill lapdog to a hyperactive Chihuahua. In this Aibo-mode, it will communicate with sound cues called "earcons."
"Bleeps and bloops can express huge amounts of emotion," Greiner tells me, admitting that R2-D2 sparked her girlhood passion for robots.
The iRobot evolved largely from military urban-warfare robots that the company built on Darpa's research dollar. It uses the same type of wheelbase configuration and self-navigating algorithms that the cop-bots do. But instead of deploying a $5,000 laser to see obstacles, the iRobot uses a $100 sonar unit. Instead of hardened tank treads, the iRobot has wheels. But those wheels can definitely move: "The iRobot can climb up a flight of stairs in about 10 seconds," says Barrett. "You can come down a lot faster if you really want to, but we're hoping that you don't."
There are any number of reasons you might want to climb those steps: to meet with contractors, pester your kids, check up on sick pets. Other, more serious applications include security, senior care, even business meetings. An iRobot could live in a corporate conference room, wirelessly connected to the Net through a PC and the office Ethernet. Remote visitors or offsite employees could easily drop in through the Net, roving the offices as far as the wireless link allows.
Many people believe such servo-driven avatars offer a leg up on traditional videoconferencing. "Once the element of the body is introduced, entirely new channels of communication are possible," says Eric Paulos, another Berkeley roboticist, who built a telepresence robot called PRoP. "This new media will be able to express lots of nonverbal cues, and in human interaction, that can make all the difference."
The iRobot crew already use their contraption to communicate around the company. "Let's say I'm trying to get in touch with Jim across the office," says Barrett. "I call his cell phone, and he doesn't answer. I call his regular phone, and he doesn't answer. He doesn't respond to email. I can now robot into his office, drive over to his desk, get in his face, and say 'Jim, talk to me!'"
For its first run, iRobot Corporation will manufacture at least a few hundred machines and sell them through iRobot.com; the exact number hasn't been set. The company expects this first wave of iRobots to seed a community of übergeeks and robot fanatics who will develop creative applications and build peripherals. The iRobot has expansion mounts on both head and body in anticipation of the various grippers, bulldozer scoops, and fridge-openers that both its maker and other people will build. A developer's toolkit is slated for early next year.
Not everybody believes that home robotics is ready to take off. Given that robot intelligence is still quite primitive, most folks wouldn't want a dopey 30-pound videocam rolling around their apartment. But iRobot Corporation is figuring that telepresence will serve as a killer app at least long enough for more creative uses to start rolling in. In other words, the iRobot is more of a platform than a product. For a similar business model, Greiner points to Palm, whose technology sparked a hacker frenzy and which strongly encourages and supports third-party developers.
iRobot Corporation, which is chaired by famed roboticist Rodney Brooks, also figures that it's best to get iRobot's foot in the door, even if that foot will soon need an upgrade. "Robots are ready for large-scale consumer uses," says Greiner. "If we don't do it now, someone else will."
The roboticists on the couch don't seem worried about the market, though. "This is the robot I dreamed of programming when I was a kid," says Allard. "Pretty often, in the evening after the kids are in bed, I just get back online with this thing and start making it do strange stuff." His main obsession right now is programming little dance maneuvers. "They're pretty cheesy."
Greiner is putting a big bet on the iRobot's success. She's had a quarter of the company's engineering staff working on the project full-time for over a year, and sold off equity in the corporation to finance their R&D push. It's a risk, but it's important to remember the thousands of folks who paid $2,500 for the essentially nonprogrammable Aibo. Even if we never see the iRobot in Wal-Mart, the gadgets may very well become the Cabbage Patch Kid for the hardcore geek set this Christmas. "There's a lot of folks out there who will want this," says Barrett. "Every little boy I've ever known has wanted his own robot."
"Every little person," Greiner corrects him.
"Yeah, every little person."
