Teaming with the University of Michigan, US firm SoarTech was recently awarded first place and $750,000 at the first Multi Autonomous Ground-robotic International Challenge (MAGIC 2010).
SoarTech’s real-time 3D interface featuring SAGE (Situation, Actions, Goals, Environment) impressed the judges and helped Team Michigan take first place.
The nearly two-year long, international competition was sponsored by the US Department of Defense and Australia’s Defense Science and Technology Organisation.
Participants were challenged to develop a team of autonomous ground robots capable of communicating and completing tasks while operating with minimal operator intervention.
Team Michigan used 14 robots to effectively map areas of an urban environment while neutralising observed threats.
The robots coordinated their actions and passed information back to a ground station manned by two human operators.
Team Michigan’s SAGE demonstrated the capability for numerous robots to be controlled by only two human operators.
The SAGE interface’s key feature is its ability to automatically detect and highlight events that are important to the user.
Underneath the display is event detection logic that autonomously detects events of interest for an operator, such as a civilian close to a dangerous object or a robot about to execute neutralisation.
SAGE prioritises and tracks each of these events, reducing clutter by combining events that are related.
For high priority events SAGE automatically creates a 3D first-person view of the event to provide critical spatial and status context to the operator.
Australian and US competition judges found the SAGE interface to be an important component in helping the operators as they managed multiple autonomous robots performing tasks in a dynamic environment.
Team Michigan was one of five finalists selected out of an initial 23 to compete in the final stage of MAGIC 2010 in Adelaide, November 7-12.