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Canadian researchers have developed a three-eyed, six-legged robot that can walk, swim, and create 3D maps of coral reefs, oil platforms, underwater cables, or even sunken wrecks. There's no other technology like it.

Investigators Martin Buehler (on leave at BDI) Gregory Dudek (McGill) Michael Jenkin (York) Evangelos Milios (Dalhousie) Project Staff Chris Prahacs, McGill: Design and construction of the hexapod robot Jim Zacher, York: Development and deployment of the robot's trinocular stereo head Graduate Students Christine Georgiades, McGill (flipper design, simulator and dynamics) Eric Bourque, McGill (modelling and infrastructure) Robert Sim, University of British Columbia (formerly McGill) (vision-based localization) Paul DiMarco, McGill (depth inference) Junead Sattar, McGill (vision-based control) Andrew Hogue, York (trinocular rig development, psychophysics and VR design) Arlene Ripsman, York (motion path planning) Andrew German, York (trinocular rig development) Pifu Zhang, Dalhousie (acoustic localization)

A research team from McGill, York, and Dalhousie universities have combined computer vision and robotics technology to build the first robot that can walk into the water, swim to a specified area, build a three-dimensional model of what it sees, and then return to shore. AQUA (Autonomous Aquatic Walking Robot) could be used to inspect oil rigs, underwater cables, or changes to coral reefs or to search for sunken treasure. It can even remember shapes and familiar places.

The three-year, $450,000 project, which wraps up in March 2005, is being sponsored by the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Systems (IRIS) as well as the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and MD Robotics of Brampton, Ontario.

"We're dealing with basic science questions related to vehicles with high degrees of mobility, which is why MD Robotics and CSA are interested," explains Project Leader Dr. Michael Jenkin, a computer scientist at York University. "In space or underwater, there is no plane and essentially zero gravity. As a result, you need a robot that works in a sixth-degree of freedom space. Very little is known on how to do this."

Most robots operate on a flat plane. Their hardware and software are not designed to move in three-positional and three-rotational degrees of freedom. AQUA's combined walking and swimming capabilities, along with sophisticated 3D-camera and modelling technologies, make it unique in the field of underwater robotics.

During its first test at the Bellairs Research Institute in Barbados in January 2004, AQUA proved it could swim, observe, and survive in an ocean environment. A second saltwater test is planned for January 2005.

Four faculty, along with 10 graduate students and two technicians, are each tackling a particular research question relating to sensing and reasoning, navigation, and locomotion underwater.

At McGill, Dr. Martin Buehler and Dr. Gregory Dudek modified a six-legged walking robot – called the Rugged RHex – to create AQUA. This included transforming the hexapod's six legs into six flippers that allow the robot to swim through water as well as waddle on the surface of an ocean floor.

Dr. Dudek is also working on the computer vision technology that allows AQUA to recognize where it is, and to build a three-dimensional picture of what it's looking at using a statistical learning-based model.

At Dalhousie University, Dr. Evangelos Milios developed a low-cost version of an acoustic localization system that permits an operator to accurately determine the robot's position underwater.

Meanwhile, researchers at York University are conducting experiments with a computerized camera system that uses three artificial eyes and an artificial balance system to obtain 3D models of an underwater scene.

Dr. Dudek, who heads the McGill Mobile Robotics Laboratory, says the project has been a great learning experience for graduate students.

"Because IRIS focuses on taking theory and putting it into practice, our students are learning how to take computer science ideas and make them work with physical things – wheels, gears, cameras. If you're going into industry, you have to know how to span that gap between theory and real applications."

While this phase of the project finishes in April 2005, the team plans to seek additional funding to move the technology closer to commercialization.

"One of the big things IRIS has done is it's given us a forum and an infrastructure within which we can approach various potential industrial partners," says Dr. Jenkin. "We're talking to some groups that may be interested in taking parts of the technology and spinning it off into more applied things."

Adds Dr. Dudek, "We already have a second version on the drawing board that would be cheaper, lighter, and better. I'm also working with a biologist who may be interested in using AQUA to assess changes and damage to coral reefs."

IRIS, a federally funded Network of Centres of Excellence, is managed by Precarn Incorporated, a not-for-profit national consortium of corporations, research institutes, and government partners supporting the development of robotics and intelligent systems.

www.precarn.ca