FIU’s Discovery Lab is researching the possibility of robots aiding disabled police officers.
The lab is building a TeleBot to perform duties that would otherwise be impossible for disabled officers.
The Discovery Lab was established in 2012 when founding member and Director of Computer Science, S. Sitharama Iyengar, says he envisioned an environment where students can be inventive and apply it to tangible research.
“I thought about starting a lab where the students would play a very significant role in being very creative, such as building systems and man-made contraptions,” Iyengar said to Student Media.
The TeleBot project, affectionately known as “RoboCop” to model the film’s futuristic law enforcement, began with a research proposal soon after the lab’s inception.
Lieutenant Commander Jeremy Robins of the U.S. Navy Reserves, noticed that disabled veterans and police officers were marginalized from carrying out their official duties because of their disability. As a result, Robins donated $20,000 to the Discovery Lab with a specific purpose: to design a robot that can assist disabled veterans and officers.
“The objective of the TeleBot is to create an avatar, or ‘telepresence’ robot that would enable an officer to serve while sitting at the police station, regardless of their disability,” the Discovery Lab’s Research Coordinator, Colonel Jerry Miller, said to Student Media.
In the five years since the project began, there has been significant research and progress on bringing the “RoboCop” to life. The robot is equipped with visual capabilities to create the ‘telepresence’ effect, where two video cameras operate through the eyes allowing for stereoscopic vision. The nose acts as a sonar to detect objects and it has smart sensors enabling it to physically lift and grip objects.
The TeleBot previously functioned through Bluetooth programming, where it would imitate a person’s movements within proximity of the connection. Currently, the robot functions through Wi-Fi and is controlled by a computer program.
“Now that it’s controlled through the computer and we hooked him up to the internet, it could be out on the street, away from the police station and doing what the officer wants him to do,” said Miller.
Much of the research and building on the TeleBot are performed by the lab’s four to five undergraduate students, who actively contribute in writing its programs and algorithms.
Manuel Garcia, a senior computer science major and research assistant to the Discovery Lab, joined the program in the summer of 2013 and is one of the students currently working on the TeleBot.
“I was looking for something to push my limits and do something outside of class that pushes you to learn new things. I was really interested in A.I. (artificial intelligence) and I saw an opportunity to implement A.I. since the TeleBot has cameras and sensors,” Garcia said to Student Media.
His main focus on the robot is improving its motion-capture system to create accurate movements.
The research produced in the Discovery Lab offers students with real-world application of concepts learned inside the classroom as well as those not covered in the classroom.
“Each part of the TeleBot uses different [computational] languages and modules that they don’t teach you in class and it’s nice learning these new things that industries will require,” said Garcia.
The real-life “RoboCop” is constantly being tested for new research applications and is a continuous work in progress, according to Miller. The lab is also working on object avoidance and thinking capabilities so the robot can act more independently.
“The most striking thing to me is how students can play an active role in understanding the problem, enhancing their creativity, and it is challenging, but that is the beauty of designing all of these robots,” said Iyengar.
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