The RoMan can lift heavy objects and move trees in the field. Source: Army Research LabThe U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL) has developed ground robots with arms and hands that are capable of removing heavy objects and other road debris from military vehicles’ paths.
RoMan, short for Robotic Manipulator, can complete tasks such as multi-object debris clearing, dragging a heavy object such as a tree limb or even opening a container to remove objects such as a bag.
"Given a task like 'clear a path', the robot needs to identify potentially relevant objects, figure out how objects can be grasped by determining where and with what hand shape, and decide what type of interaction to use, whether that's lifting, moving, pushing or pulling to achieve its task," said Chad Kessens, Robotic Manipulation researcher at ARL.
RoMan has the ability to receive verbal commands from soldier teammates using natural human language and can adapt over time to new scenarios by building models on-the-fly while incorporating the power of model-based reasoning. ARL said this is important because it will allow the robot to do unstructured tasks without putting soldiers in harm’s way.
ARL tested the robot as part of its Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance, a program to develop autonomy in support of manned or unmanned teaming with ground robotics. The ground robot is part of a 10-year research project in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Washington, the University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon University and General Dynamics Land Systems.
