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Print Edition StoriesThursday, January 15, 2009
MIT, partners developing a robot forklift for military
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MIT researchers are developing a robotic forklift that could be used in war zones, according to the school.
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are working on a semi-autonomous forklift that can be used in dangerous situations and controlled remotely from a safe location. The device is designed to operate outdoors on uneven terrain such as gravel or packed earth, and can transport pallet-loaded supplies including truck tires, water containers and construction materials, according to CSAIL.
As it is, people driving forklifts unload the pallets, put them into storage, and later load them onto trucks to deliver the pallet to where it’s needed. The forklift operators must often scramble for cover, putting them at risk and slowing the work, the school said.
The new forklift is designed to operate autonomously with high-level direction from a human supervisor who could be nearby, or in a remote bunker. The forklift would learn 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 would 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 human input for now. A supervisor’s tablet computer, wirelessly linked to the forklift, displays images from the forklift’s forward-looking video camera. The supervisor controls the robot by making stylus gestures on the image. CSAIL plans for future versions to require less human input, so an operator could simply gesture and say “unload that truck,” for example.
The machine also reverts to a conventional manned forklift whenever someone climbs into the operator’s cabin.
The forklift project involved about 30 faculty, staff and students from MIT as well as from Lincoln Laboratory, The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and BAE Systems Corp. The project was funded by the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency.
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