Robot wheelchair finds its own way

MIT invention responds to user's spoken commands

MIT researchers are developing a new kind of autonomous wheelchair that can learn all about the locations in a given building, and then take its occupant to a given place in response to a verbal command.

Just by saying "take me to the cafeteria" or "go to my room," the wheelchair user would be able to avoid the need for controlling every twist and turn of the route and could simply sit back and relax as the chair moves from one place to another based on a map stored in its memory.

"It's a system that can learn and adapt to the user," says Nicholas Roy, assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics and co-developer of the wheelchair. "People have different preferences and different ways of referring" to places and objects, he says, and the aim is to have each wheelchair personalized for its user and the user's environment.

Unlike other attempts to program wheelchairs or other mobile devices, which rely on an intensive process of manually capturing a detailed map of a building, the MIT system can learn about its environment in much the same way as a person would: By being taken around once on a guided tour, with important places identified along the way. For example, as the wheelchair is pushed around a nursing home for the first time, the patient or a caregiver would say: "this is my room" or "here we are in the foyer" or "nurse's station."

Also collaborating on the project are Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at MIT's AgeLab, and Seth Teller, professor of computer science and engineering and head of the Robotics, Vision, and Sensor Networks (RVSN) group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Teller says the RVSN group is developing a variety of machines, of various sizes, that can have situational awareness, that is, that can "learn these mental maps, in order to help people do what they want to do, or do it for them." Besides the wheelchair, the devices range in scale from a location-aware cellphone all the way up to an industrial forklift that can transport large loads from place to place outdoors, autonomously.

Outdoors in the open, such systems can rely on GPS receivers to figure out where they are, but inside buildings that method usually doesn't work, so other approaches are needed. Roy and Teller have been exploring the use of WiFi signals, as well as wide-field cameras and laser rangefinders, coupled to computer systems that can construct and localize within an internal map of the environment as they move around.

"I'm interested in having robots build and maintain a high-fidelity model of the world," says Teller, whose central research focus is developing machines that have situational awareness.

For now, the wheelchair prototype relies on a WiFi system to make its maps and then navigate through them, which requires setting up a network of WiFi nodes around the facility in advance. After months of preliminary tests on campus, they have begun trials in a real nursing home environment with real patients, at the Boston Home in Dorchester, a facility where all of the nearly 100 patients have partial or substantial loss of muscle control and use wheelchairs.

As the research progresses, Roy says he'd like to add a collision-avoidance system using detectors to prevent the chair from bumping into other wheelchairs, walls or other obstacles. In addition,Teller says he hopes to add mechanical arms to the chairs, to aid the patients further by picking up and manipulating objects -- everything from flipping a light switch to picking up a cup and bringing it to the person's lips.

The research has been funded by Nokia and Microsoft.

MIT research bringing 'smart bikes' to Denmark

Project aims to match sustainability, interactivity

MIT researchers unveiled a major new project on Oct. 10 in Copenhagen aimed at transforming bicycle use in Denmark's largest city, promoting urban sustainability and building new connections between the city's cyclists.

The project, called SmartBiking, will utilize a novel self-organizing smart-tag system that will allow the city's residents to exchange basic information and share their relative positioning with each other. The project will be implemented citywide in time for the November 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference, which Copenhagen will host.

"One of the most striking aspects of Copenhagen is that it is already a very sustainable city," said Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT's SENSEable City Lab, which is overseeing the Smart Biking project. "A considerable fraction of its energy comes from renewable sources and, unlike a few decades ago, 30 to 40 percent of its citizens use bicycles as their primary method of transportation.

"So our challenge was, 'How can we enhance these dynamics of sustainability? And how can we use technology to make them more widespread?'"

Beyond encouraging Copenhagen's citizens to ride more often, the program aims to help them interact as well.

"We have developed a Facebook application called 'I crossed your path,' which creates a social network for cyclists, allowing them to link up with people they may have ridden past during the day and potentially establish new connections," explained Christine Outram, the principal research assistant on the project.

The smart tags will also allow individuals to monitor the distance they travel while cycling as part of a citywide "green mileage" initiative, which is similar to a frequent-flyer program.

What will the reward for green miles be? "A year of free Muesli," mused SENSEable City Lab's Associate Director Assaf Biderman. "The very act of sharing this information and showing individuals the environmental impact of their actions could be very powerful. Research has shown that behavioral change is one of the most powerful forces to tackle climate change and the reduction of carbon emissions."

Ultimately, fine-grained monitoring of urban activities could allow cities such as Copenhagen to enter carbon-trading schemes. Cities could obtain funding for sustainable city services in exchange for their efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions. The impact could be considerable, as cities account for approximately half of the world population, but are responsible for a much larger share of carbon emissions.

Finally, as part of the project, a prototype of a smart bicycle is being developed in collaboration with the MIT Media Lab's Smart Cities Group at the MIT Media Lab, directed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W Dreyfoos (1954) Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences. This hybrid bicycle uses a regenerative motor to harvest the energy created when braking and release it while cycling, in a manner similar to hybrid cars. Everything, including the battery, is packed in the rear wheel, which becomes a self-contained element that could be retrofitted on most existing bicycles.

The Smart Biking Project is developed by the SENSEable City Laboratory, an MIT research group focused on technology and urban planning that is a part of the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning, together with the MIT Design Lab. In addition to professors Ratti and Mitchell, the team comprises Assaf Biderman, Francesco Calabrese, Michael Lin, Mauro Martino and Outram.

Google-Yahoo ad deal off, Microsoft in the wings?

The Google-Yahoo advertising deal that was a relic of Yahoo’s defense against a Microsoft takeover has been abandoned because of an inability to satisfy the concerns of US regulators:

Google Inc. has scrapped its Internet advertising partnership with struggling rival Yahoo Inc., abandoning attempts to overcome the objections of antitrust regulators and customers who believed the alliance would give Google too much power over online commerce.

The retreat announced Wednesday represented another setback for Yahoo, which had been counting on the Google deal to boost its annual revenue by $800 million and placate shareholders still incensed by management’s decision to reject a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp. six months ago.

Google backed off after the U.S. Justice Department said it would sue to block the Yahoo deal to preserve competition in the Internet’s rapidly growing advertising market.

“The arrangement likely would have denied consumers the benefits of competition — lower prices, better service and greater innovation,” said Thomas Barnett, an assistant attorney general who oversees the Justice Department’s antitrust division.

Without Google’s help, Yahoo now may feel more pressure to renew talks with Microsoft and ultimately sell for a price well below the $33 per share that Microsoft offered in May. Yahoo shares traded Wednesday morning at just $14.05, gaining 70 cents in a move reflecting investor hopes that Microsoft might renew its pursuit.

So will Microsoft try again at a much lower price? There are a lot of good buys in today’s depressed stock market, but is Yahoo one of them?