Trend Report 2011: From Battlefield to Safe Urban Transport

Credit: Google Car

Robotland Robotics Trend Report 2011
Robotics has developed from science fiction into a strategic technology to revitalize industries, secure welfare and develop society. In recent years new robotics visions and roadmaps have been developed by leading roboticists proposing new concepts such as Japanese "Humanoid Servants", Korean "Ubiquitous Robotic Companions", European "Soft, Sentient Robot Companions for Citizens", or American "Unmanned Robotic Army".

In a serie of reports Robotland will describe some global robotics trends to create awareness and insights that might affect markets, industry and society in the near future. 

Battlefield Robotics
Military applications account for a growing number of robot installations. The U.S. and much of the rest of the world are betting big on the role of aerial drones. Especially in the United States the U.S. military has set clear goals on the capabilities of future unmanned systems. When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, it had just a handful of drones. Today, U.S. forces have around 7,000 unmanned vehicles in the air and an additional 12,000 on the ground, used for tasks including reconnaissance, airstrikes and bomb disposal. In 2009, for the first time, the U.S. Air Force trained more "pilots" for unmanned aircraft than for manned fighters and bombers.

This development leads also to concerns and debate about the use of robots on the battlefield. Almost 50 countries either already have or are developing war robots. Some researchers fear that advances in robotic systems will lead to more countries committing to war, since robots would be taking the place of humans on the battlefield.  Last year a group of researchers already called the international community to urgently commence a discussion about an arms control regime to reduce the threat posed by these systems. 

Unmanned Ground Vehicles for Safer Trafic

How applications for many military-derived robots can be transferred into civil applications is another issue. For example, UAVs for police and coastguard use are natural successors to military UAVs. The first promising examples of unmanned technology application on civil ground are the Google car, a visionary step from cyberspace into robotspace, and the European OFAV project, driving a van 13.000 km from Italy to Shanghai. It shows that it is possible to move people and goods in real life conditions with virtually no human intervention. The demand of greener and safer transport systems may be a strong driving force for further development of driverless vehicles. But many technical, and also legal, ethical and social issues have to be solved before the driverless fleet will arrive next to your door.
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Robotland  is watching and mindmapping global robotics trends continuously and systematically to identify disruptive innovations, market trends, business blind spots, market barriers and new investment opportunities in more than 60 countries.  Robotlands Global Robotics Brain has recently been featured of IEEE Spectrum Automaton  

Will Google change only our car driving behavior?

First Google conquered cyberspace with its search engine, then it changed mapping with Google Earth, then it changed the rule for advertising and spread Cloud computing to the masses with Picasa, blogger and Gmail. Now Google hit the roads with cars that drive themselves. 

October 10 the company announced that Google Cars, manned by trained operators, have logged over 140,000 miles by driving from Google's Mountain View campus to their Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. 

DARPA winner behind Google Car

The brain behind this project is Sebastian Thrun, the 43-year-old director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, a Google engineer and the co-inventor of the Street View mapping service.

In 2005, he led a team of Stanford students and faculty members in designing the Stanley robot car, winning the second Grand Challenge of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a $2 million Pentagon prize for driving autonomously over 132 miles in the desert.

Besides the team of 15 engineers working on the current project, Google hired more than a dozen people, each with a spotless driving record, to sit in the driver’s seat, paying $15 an hour or more. Google is using six Priuses and an Audi TT in the project.

The Google researchers said the company did not yet have a clear plan to create a business from the experiments. 

Google cars will safe life and nature

Google refers to World Health Organization, WHO, reporting more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents. Google believes that their technology has the potential to cut that number, perhaps by as much as half.  Google beliefs that self-driving cars will transform car sharing, significantly reducing car usage, as well as help create the new “highway trains of tomorrow." These highway trains should cut energy consumption while also increasing the number of people that can be transported on our major roads. 

This is a milestone in the history of self driving cars and opens a new area in transportation. In the near future we will search for a destination at Google Earth, then search for a free Google Car next to us and pay with our Google phone for free. In the next step Google will know, based on search behavior and life style pattern, when to send a Google Car to me, long before I ever know that I will need a car. Amazing foresight service for Ambient Assisted Living.  

Google Car is a visionary step from cyberspace into physical space and if it succeeds, it will boost hands free driving and mobile robotics of all kind. Google Car will become a new kind of mobile hands free information and media channel. Google Car will be fueled by information, ads and entertainment following every passenger from location to location without delay. Where ever you will be in the future, Google will be with you and you will be with Google. Some rules have already changed, and may be, they will even change Google in the future.