Omnidirectional Robotic Beacon-eye

DARPA is seeking to develop an advanced omnidirectional beacon-eye for robotic applications. Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new compact Omnidirectional Robotic Beacon-eye (ORB) based on a solid panoramic head, which will transferan input area of ¿7¿ in elevation and 360¿ horizontal to a conventional conical input field where it can be imaged to the receiver. In the reverse path, the receiving beacon-eye can be used as a beacon. The special orthogonal grooved structure canprovide retroreflection of incoming beams. This allows members of the robotic team to use another robot for triangulation even if the other robot is disabled and without power. The proposed ORB offers several advantages including compact design involvingeye, beacon and retroreflection in one device modular design easily mountable on the robot and low cost. In Phase I POC will design, fabricate and evaluate the prototype of the proposed ORB. In Phase II the beacon-eye will be integrated and tested in anactual multicommunication scheme. The proposed robotic beacon-eye can be used in the commercial sector in a variety of multicommunication schemes including security systems, law enforcement and many other current and future potential applications.