[Editors] MIT tests new robotic forklift

[Jen Hirsch]

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Robo-forklift keeps humans out of harm’s way
--Could allow military to handle supplies without risk to people
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For Immediate Release
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14, 2009

Contact: Jen Hirsch, MIT News Office
E: jfhirsch at mit.edu, T: 617-253-1682

Photo Available

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Researchers in MIT’s Computer Science and  
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are working on a better way  
to handle supplies in a war zone: a semi-autonomous forklift that can  
be directed by people safely away from the dangers of the site.

Currently, when supplies arrive at military outposts in war zones such  
as Iraq, people driving forklifts unload the pallets and put them into  
storage, and later load them onto trucks to take the material to where  
it’s needed. These forklift operators must often scramble for cover,  
slowing the work and putting them at risk.

When completed, the new robotic device will provide a safer way to  
handle pallet-loaded supplies of everything from truck tires to water  
containers and construction materials, says Matt Walter, a CSAIL  
postdoctoral researcher with a lead role in the project. The device is  
designed to operate outdoors on uneven terrain such as gravel or  
packed earth.

In Iraq, it has not been uncommon for workers to “have to abandon the  
forklift three or four times a day because they come under fire,”  
Walter says. “A lot of the work could be automated,” thus alleviating  
people’s exposure to danger, “but it’s a very difficult task.”

HEAVY LIFTING IN HOSTILE TERRITORY

The forklift is designed to operate autonomously with high-level  
direction from a human supervisor who could be physically nearby, or  
safely ensconced in a remote bunker. In an initial training phase, the  
forklift learns the basic layout of the storage depot facility, such  
as where the reception area is,  where incoming supply trucks arrive  
with a load of pallets ready to be stored, and where the storage areas  
are for those pallets to be deposited. The forklift can then be  
commanded to transport pallets from one place to another within the  
depot.

Determining which pallets to pick up and where they need to go  
requires guidance from a human supervisor, at least for now. The  
supervisor’s tablet computer, wirelessly linked to the forklift,  
displays the view from the forklift’s forward-looking video camera.  
Using stylus gestures on the image, the supervisor indicates the truck  
to be unloaded, the pallet to be engaged next, and perhaps where on  
the pallet to insert the forklift tines. The supervisor also speaks to  
the tablet, indicating the desired destination of the target pallet.  
As the system gets more sophisticated, the supervisor would need to do  
less and less, eventually simply gesturing and saying “unload that  
truck,” for example.

But to ensure that it can always carry out the necessary tasks, if  
there’s ever a problem with the automated system the machine reverts  
to a conventional manned forklift whenever someone climbs into the  
operator’s cabin.

TESTS UNDER WAY

Research began with a small test platform rigged with forklift tines  
and a variety of sensors and computers that was used for a series of  
indoor tests and is now continuing with a full-scale prototype being  
tested outdoors on the MIT campus.

The work is part of several projects at CSAIL focused on “the  
development of situational awareness for machines,” explains Seth  
Teller, professor of computer science and engineering and project  
lead. Situational awareness, Teller says, involves the use of sensing,  
motion, inference and memory to acquire “a model of the spatial layout  
of the world and its contents, to allow us to plan and move  
purposefully in the world.” Humans develop these internal maps of  
their surroundings without even thinking about it, but “machines can’t  
yet do it automatically.”

In developing the robotic system, the CSAIL researchers have made  
extensive use of computer code developed for other projects, including  
the autonomous vehicle MIT entered in the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge  
auto race, in which unmanned cars navigated roads without human  
intervention, Teller says. That work has been reported in papers in  
the Journal of Field Robotics, and the forklift project itself is the  
subject of a paper being submitted for publication at an upcoming  
robotics conference.

Among the tasks the robot must carry out automatically is avoiding  
unexpected obstacles, especially people who may be walking around in  
the area. That turned out to be less of a challenge than expected: “It  
is possible to detect moving people using laser range scanners,”  
Walter says. “Things get much harder if people are trying to trick the  
system by hiding or standing very still,” Teller notes.

The forklift project has involved about 30 faculty, staff and students  
from MIT as well as from Lincoln Laboratory, Draper Laboratory and BAE  
Systems. It has been funded by the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation  
Agency.

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Written by David Chandler, MIT News Office