Robot Combat Intelligence

[ PHOTO ( above ): W-88 miniature nuclear bomb property of USA ( click to enlarge ) ]

Robot Combat Intelligence
by, Concept Activity Research Vault ( CARV )

January 18, 2011 21:08:42 ( PST ) ( Originally Published: February 1, 2002 )

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington – January 18, 2011 – Over 12-years ago, after the United States realized too late that its ‘miniature nuclear weapons technology delivery system’ ( W-88 ) secrets had already been stolen ( from the vault of its insurance carrier ) after the People’s Republic of China ( PRC ) rapidly produced their own version, ‘only a select few’ realized a secret U.S. decision took futuristic concepts into development for U.S. global military applications deploying technologies that only seemed to have been conceived from science-fiction motion picture films ( e.g. STAR TREK, STAR WARS, MATRIX, and more ) shocking audiences worldwide.   In 1999, U.S. secret defense endeavors forgings – with several universities and U.S. government contract private sector organizations – were led by the U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA ) created even newer more advanced multiple Program stratagems employing various forms of ‘combinatoric’ technologies developed for globally deploying U.S. military dominance with various and sundry secret-sensitive devices and systems far beyond many imaginations.

DARPA SIMBIOSYS Program –

DARPA SIMBIOSYS Program entails, amongst other things, multi-functional microbiological nano technology robot android devices primarily for military applications, where such remained until just a few years ago, until it began being applied in some medical arenas today.

To understand what is ‘current’, one must first look briefly at DARPA Programs ‘past’ ( 1999 – 2002 ), which ( alone ) is enough to ‘still send chills down many people’s spines today’. Once realizing what DARPA was doing 12-years ago, it’s not all that unfathomable to comprehend where DARPA has taken and will continue taking many.

SIMBIOSYS ( 1999 – 2002 ) –

In 1999, DARPA SIMBIOSYS developed a combined quantitative understanding of various biological phenomena characteristics opening the DARPA door to what amounts to MicroElectroMechanical Systems ( MEMS ) integrating microphotonics in, amongst many things such as electro-optic spatial light modulators ( SLM ) combining very short pulse solid state lasers providing powerful new capabilities for secure communication up-links ( multi-gigabits per second ), ‘aberration free’ 3-D imaging and targeting performed at very long ranges ( greater than 1,000 kilometers away ), innovative design system integration of MEMS spatial light modulators ( SLM ) providing quantum wavefront control leaps in photonics and high speed electronics, and even ‘flexible cloth-like smart materials’ DARPA wants hardware placed into production devices and systems applications optimizing both U.S. and ‘its specially selected few other foreign nation U.S. friendlies’ ( Israel ) to hold in future warfaring battlespace management superiority over other foreign nation threats.

DARPA SIMBIOSYS includes classes of biological molecules ( i.e. antigens, antibodies, DNA, cytokines, enzymes, etc. ) for analyses and diagnoses studies, from:

1. Biochemical sensors, sensing ‘details from environments’; and,

2. Biochemical sensors, sensing ‘details from human body fluids’.

Specific examples under each of those two ( 2 ) groups being left up to the discretion of the PI.

Bio-molecules importance slect criteria, includes:

1. Microsystem sensors, for automated sampling and analyses, extendibility;

2. Bio-molecules simulant, to which it represents U.S. Department of Defense ( DoD ) relevant extents; and,

3. Bio-detection high degree of sensitivity and specificity processing, etc.

DARPA SIMBIOSYS emphasis is at the ‘molecular level’ for ‘sensing’ and ‘detection’.

SIMBIOSYS Program precludes human cells and human tissue based sensing because other DARPA programs currently address those issues in combination thereof.

SIMBIOSYS Goals –

SIMBIOSYS Program ‘stimulates multi-disciplinary research’ – bringing together biologists, chemists, engineers, physicists, computer scientists and others to address difficult and pressing challenges in advancing micro and nano-biotechnology.

SIMBIOSYS Program goal is to ‘utilize phenomena’ in ‘bio-fluidic transport’, ‘molecular recognition’ and ‘signal transduction from joint studies in modeling and experiments.

SIMBIOSYS Program joint effort expects results in ‘new hardware device, new hardware processes and new hardware production communities that will begin utilizing new models, new rules, new methods and new processes together enabling design and development of enhanced performance next generation bio-microdevices.

DARPA Advanced Projects –

DARPA is focusing on, amongst many, these advanced projects:

1. Bioengineering artificial intelligence ( AI ) systems sized from nanometers and meters up to large-scale robotic systems deployed globally;

2. Biological hybrid devices and systems, inspired from computational algorithms and models;

3. Biosynthesized composite materials incorporating synthetic enzymes and pathways from biochemical cellular engineered concepts for application productions;

4. Neural phenomena control over system science computation measurement application interfaces addressing humans;

5. Micro-scale reagents biochemically engineered;

6. Biosynthesis signal processing control platform studies;

7. Molecular biological population level behavior dynamic simulation modeling complexes; and,

8. Subcellular device physics affects and cellular device physics affects within biological component systems using real-time non-destructive observation study techniques.

[ PHOTO ( above ): legacy MicroFlyer, only a Microelectronic Aerial Vehicle – MAV ( click to enlarge ) ]

Bioengineered MicroBots Developed & Deployed –

Battlefields now require ‘unmanned combat aerial vehicles’ ( UCAV ) and ‘advanced weapons’ that self-navigate and self-reconfigure with autonomous communication systems accomplishing time-critical commands, however while many use Commercial Off The Shelf ( COTS ) products, such is not the case for developed and deployed bioengineered microrobots.

MicroBot AMR Control By MARS –

DARPA mobile autonomous robot software ( MARS ) Project is designed to develop and transition ‘currently unavailable software technologies programming’ operations of autonomous mobile robots ( AMR ) in partially known changing and unpredictable environments.

DARPA SIMBIOSYS Program aims provide new software removing humans from combat, conveyance, reconnaissance, and surveillance processes by:

1. Extending military hardware range;

2. Lowering manpower costs;

3. Removing human physiology for swifter concepts, designs, engineering, development, and deployment successes; and,

4. Researchers demonstrating autonomous navigation of humanoid robots, unmanned military vehicles, autonomous vehicles and interactions between humans.

DARPA indicates that robots – to be meaningful – must be fully integrated into human lives in military, commercial, educational and domestic usages must be capable of interacting in more natural human ways.

DARPA funded research and development of robots given similar bodies with human-like intelligence for humanoid interaction providing new ways for the human world.

COG Robot –

DARPA funded Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) researchers, employing a set of sensors and actuators ( with small microcontrollers for joint level control, up to larger audio-visual digital signal network pre-processors for controlling different levels of its heterogeneous hierarchy network ) approximating human body sensory and motor dynamics, created the robot named COG that eventually allowed DARPA further development of deployable, modular, reconfigurable and autonomous robots.

[ PHOTO ( above ): legacy Biomorphic Explorers – Snakes and Bats ( click to enlarge ) ]

CONRO Robots –

CONRO robots, developed through DARPA, employed autonomous capabilities, of:

1. Self-repair; and, 2. Morphogenesis ( changing shapes ).

Examples, amongst many, included design styled:

Snake robots, able to move ‘in-to’ and ‘out-of’ tight spaces; and,

Insect robots, able to move faster ( covering more ground meeting military mission swifter needs ).

[ PHOTO ( above ): legacy Spider, and Payload biochemical delivery simulation ( click to enlarge ) ]

CONRO robots were design equipped to perform two ( 2 ) missions:

1. Reconnaissance ( activity detection, monitorization, and reporting – surveillance ); and,

2. Deliver small ‘military payloads’ ( bio-chemical weapons, etc. ) into ‘enemy occupied remote territory locations’ ( away-from friendly warfighters ).

CONRO robots are comprised of multiple SPIDERLINK modules.

In 1999, DARPA built both ‘snakes’ and ‘hexapods’ as ‘initially tethered’ prototypes termed 1-DOF, equipped with abilities to both ‘dock’ and ‘gait ambulate’ based on applied computational algorithms.

In 2000, DARPA had twenty ( 20 ) autonomous self-sufficient ‘modules’ – not mentioning what those resembled – built designated as 2-DOF, after:

1. Hormone based control developed and tested theory;

2. Hormone hexapods and snakes implemented motions ( for 2-DOF );

3. Quadrupeds, hexapods and snakes implemented locomotion with centralized control for 2-DOF;

4. Morphing self-repair ‘modules’ delivering small payloads used ‘miniature cameras’ that were designed and tested; and,

5. Snake head with snake tail with configured docking capabilities were implemented laboratory two dimensional ( 2-D ) testing.

CONRO DARPA Near-Term Milestones:

1. Modules’ reconfigurability ( morphogenesis ) robust automation designed and demonstrated ( for 2-DOF );

2. Topology ‘discovery’ ( automatic topography recognition ) demonstration;

3. Gait reconfiguration ( morphogenesis ) automation for ambulating a ‘given’ ( programmed instruction ) topology designed and demonstrated;

4. Gait reconfiguration ( morphogenesis ) automation for ambulating a ‘discovery’ ( automatic topography recognition ) designed and demonstrated;

5. Wireless ( radio frequency, infra-red, etc. ) control of miniature cameras demonstrated;

6. Pointing ( waving, mousepad, etc. ) control of miniature cameras demonstrated; and,

7. Large scale deployment of CONRO robots demonstrated.

[ PHOTO ( above ): DARPA BioBot named Blaberus ( click to enlarge ) ]

Deployer Robot ( DR ) –

Deployer Robots ( DR ) ‘support’ and ‘deploy’ distributed ‘teams of other smaller robots’ termed “Joeys” ( singular, “Joey” ) that perform either ‘hazardous tasks’ or ‘tedious tasks’.

Deployer Robots ( DR ) have two ( 2 ) roles, that:

1. Carry and launch given numbers of smaller Joey robots ( Joeys ); and,

2. Command and control ( C2 ) – after launching – Joey robots ( Joeys ).

[ PHOTO ( above ): legacy CyberLink HID test USAF personnel with DARPA robots ( click to enlarge ) ]

Robot Loop Pyramid –

Robot-in-the-Loop ( RIL ) concept, augments Human-in-Loop ( HIL ), building a ‘pyramid of robots’ – supervised by one ( 1 ) person.

‘Launch’ and ‘Command and Control’ ( C2 ) – of different Joey robots ( multiple, i.e. Joeys ) – two ( 2 ) goals are handled independently, as:

1. ‘Launch’ of robots, via grenade sized Joey robot clusters ( multiple ), developed under DARPA Deployer Robot ( DR ) Program availability of smaller Joeys; and,

2. ‘Command and Control’ ( C2 ), is investigated using ‘larger robots’ developed for DARPA ITO sister Software for Distributed Robotics ( SDR ) Program enabling fully leverage of both Deployer Robot ( DR Program and Software for Distributed Robotics ( SDR ) Program development of algorithms leveraging heterogeneous interaction between a ‘smart’ highly mobile ‘Deployer Robot’ ( DR ) and a ‘team’ of Joey robots that are more powerful, less computational and less mobile.

[ PHOTO ( above ): legacy Virtual Combiman digital glove waving battlespace management ( click to enlarge ) ]

DARPA key universal elements of robot deployment examined:

1. Emplacement – Launching and dynamically situating the Joeys for mission goals;

2. Operations – Maintaining the infrastructure to support the distributed front, including communications and error detection and recovery ( e.g., getting back on course after positional drift ); and,

3. Recovery – Collecting Joey robots data to analyze after delivery into a format useful for the human operator.

DARPA Deployer Robot ( DR ) Program development acquired and refitted two ( 2 ) Urban Robot Upgrades ( URU ) in new Deployer Robots ( DR ) types.

DARPA, investigated five ( 5 ) alternate launch strategies, but selected only one ( 1 ):

1. Grenade barrel launch, delivery of robots, into a three ( 3 ) story building.

2. Grenade barrel launcher was designed, equipped and developed, with:

3. Grenade Magazine contains ‘multiple Joey robots’ for ejection – supports full mobility integrity of the Deployer Robot ( DR );

4. Sensor mast ( collapsible ) – for Deployer Robot ( DR ) interaction with Joey robots launched on arrival at destination location; and,

5. Communication ( 916 MHz ) link between Deployer Robot ( DR ) and Joey robots.

DARPA SDR Program –

DARPA Software for Distributed Robotics ( SDR ) Program development designed and built Joey robot prototypes ( approximately 3-1/2 inch cube ) for ultimate fabrication in a production lot quantity of 120 Joey robot units.

DARPA Software for Distributed Robotics ( SDR ) Program leverage and adaptation controls swarms of Joey robots.

DARPA Near-Term Milestones:

1. Launch propulsion mechanisms ( C02 cartridge, .22 caliber shell, or other ) deployment testing of Joey robots into battlefield areas;

2. Launcher ( of multiple Joey robot deployment ) mechanism built on-board first ( 1st ) Deployer Robot ( DR ) named Bandicoot;

3. Sensor mast ( collapsible ) built and installed on-board second ( 2nd ) Deployer Robot ( DR ) named Wombat;

4. Radio Frequency ( RF ) development protocols for interaction between Deployer Robot ( DR ) and Joey robots;

5. Infra-Red ( IR ) deployment protocols for interaction mechanisms between Deployer Robot ( DR ) and Joey robots using IR ( Infra-Red );

6. Human Interface Device ( HID ) operator remote control unit ( ORCU ) development for Deployer Robot ( DR ).

DARPA SIMBIOSYS began over 12-years ago. All the photographs ( above ) are almost one decade ( 10-years ) old.

Current careful research on this subject further provides more information about where the U.S. stands today.

Submitted for review and commentary by,

Concept Activity Research Vault ( CARV ), Host
E-MAIL: ConceptActivityResearchVault@Gmail.Com
WWW: http://ConceptActivityResearchVault.WordPress.Com

Reference

http://web.archive.org/web/20021214110038/http://groups.msn.com/AnExCIA/rampdintell.msnw