Robots Move Into Corporate Roles

Computerworld - Although robots have long been essential to manufacturing, other industry sectors have been slow to adopt the machines. Companies like ActivMedia Robotics LLC are trying to change that. ActivMedia designs intelligent mobile robots, sensing systems and controls for enterprise use. The Amherst, N.H.-based firm has more than 2,000 units in the field, says CEO Jeanne Dietsch. She spoke about robots and their future in IT with Computerworld national correspondent Robert L. Mitchell.

Jeanne Dietsch, CEO of ActivMedia Robotics LLC

What technology advances have made mobile robots more viable for business use? You can pull [the robot] out of the box, and you start the robot learning the building by driving it around with a joystick. As soon as it has learned the building and created a floor plan, it can drive around on its own. We could not have done that four years ago.

You sell the PatrolBot as a roving security device that includes audio, a navigational laser, a video camera and other sensors. Why would I use that in the enterprise? You would use a robot to increase reliability, to increase flexibility, to increase redundancy, to provide better situational awareness to the staff, to reduce risk to the staff and to save money.

[PatrolBot] provides situational awareness to the other guards. To be looking at something and to see the floor plan, see where the robot is in the floor plan and what it's looking at perhaps from a 360 view and a pan-tilt-zoom view, that gives you what's called situational awareness.

How does PatrolBot find and interact with an intruder? The standard PatrolBot has two-way audio. It also has text to speech, and it can play WAV files. The video is pan-tilt-zoom, and we have a 360-degree camera. You can also get a configuration of the robot that will flash startle lights. One thing security loves is that you can see the people walking by the robot because of the laser, even in the dark. So you can see their footprints moving across the floor plan.

The robot can set up what's called a laser checkbox, and if anyone walks through this particular area, the robot will notify the guard. Some of the robots have some sort of access control system, a card reader or iris scanner on them. So they can say, "You must identify yourself now."