Omnidirectional Robotic Beacon-eye

DARPA and U.S. Army are modernizing their tactics for urban operations. In this new view of such operations, a "swarm" of inexpensive robotic devices will provide a preliminary survey and mapping of buildings before infantry forces enter. The individualmembers of the robotic swarm must communicate with each other using a wireless multicommunication scheme. For this multicommunication scheme, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new compact Omnidirectional Robotic Beacon-eye (ORB) basedon a solid panoramic head, which will transfer an input area of plus/minus 15 degrees in elevation and 360 degrees in horizon to a conventional image field where it can be imaged through a microprojection lens to a receiver. In the reverse path, ORB can beused through the beamsplitter as a beacon with the same field-of-view. The microprojection lens has a telecentric arrangement in image space, and in case of power failure, ORB will serve as a retroreflector with the mirror at the beamsplitter facet. Thespecialized CMOS "smart" pixel receiver for ORB will be developed by Dust Incorporated in cooperation with Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center. Twenty ORB units will be manufactured in Phase II, integrated in a robotic platform, and tested under actualconditions.