Robotic Medic Assistant

"iRobot Corp. proposes to develop a battlefield medical robot, Bloodhound, that willbe able to navigate autonomously to wounded soldiers and provide telepresence forremote medics. Bloodhound will be built on the iRobot Urban Robot/PackBot platform.PackBot is an extremely robust tracked robot with all-weather and all-terraincapabilities. PackBot can drive in both wilderness and urban environments, outdoorsand indoors. PackBot can drive through fields and woods, over rocks, sand, andgravel, and through water, mud, and snow. Bloodhound will combine PackBot'smobility with the iRobot-LE's telepresence capabilities. The iRobot-LE's camera,microphone, and speakers provide real-time video and audio interaction between thepeople near the robot and remote users. Medics at remote locations will use thiscapability to examine and diagnose patients on the battlefield. Bloodhound willleverage the technology of Personal Status Monitors to determine the patient'slocation, and use a GPS system to determine its own location. Bloodhound willnavigate autonomously to the patient across unknown terrain using directedfrontier-based exploration. Using this technique, Bloodhound will build a map asit navigates to the patient, and use this map to navigate around any obstacles orimpassable terrain that it encounters. This project will have both direct and indirect commercial benefits for iRobotCorporation. This effort will help iRobot broaden its newly