Remote ROB: Wii Remote used to control army combat robots that can shoot

Robots in use by the U.S. military (Packbot/i-robot)Packbot, made by iRobot in Burlington, Massachusetts, disposes of bombs, sniffs out explosives and checks for landmines for US soldiers. It is 70 centimeters (28 inches) long, and moves on wheels or tracks. Some even have machine guns attached, although these are yet to be used in battle.

Packbot is capable of some tasks while on auto-control, but usually it’s remote-controlled using a “joypad” device that’s very similar to a controller used by most video game consoles, or a traditional joystick. The joypad consists of two groups of thumb-activated buttons, one for steering and the other for speed control. The problem with the joypad is that it takes a lot of concentration and can monopolize the attention of the soldier using it. Any information the robot gathers is beamed back and presented on a laptop display, but the soldier can be so occupied with the robot’s controls that they can easily miss this.

The solution? Wiimote and iPhone to the rescue!

As you well know, the Wii Remote (or “Wiimote” for short) control system allows game players to direct on-screen action using a wireless wand that detects acceleration in three dimensions when playing on the Nintendo Wii console system. It has already found some unexpected uses, such as manipulating ultrasound images and monitoring movement deficiencies in people with Parkinson’s disease (New Scientist, 16 February, p 26). But now David Bruemmer and Douglas Few, both engineers at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Lab in Idaho Falls, have modified a military robot so that it can be controlled by the Wiimote.

Video of the iRobot in action via the Wii Remote!


“Our tests show 90 per cent of the operator’s workload goes into driving the robot rather than keeping an eye on the sensor data,” says Bruemmer. So using a Wiimote is far more intuitive because movements of the hand directly translate into movements of the robot. Bruemmer says it should allow soldiers to control the robots more instinctively, freeing them up to pay closer attention to the incoming sensor data. “It’s awesome,” Few says, although they have yet to ask the soldiers themselves what they think. Bruemmer and Few have also written software that sends a signal to the Wiimote when the robot has detected something of special interest – somebody trapped in a building, say – activating the Wiimote’s built-in vibration feedback.

“Using the Wiimote to control various aspects of the robot makes a lot of sense,” says Colin Angle of iRobot.

The team will also be adding Wiimote control to the military Talon robots, made by Foster-Miller of Waltham, Massachusetts, but it could be applied to other types. “When trying to envision controlling a future domestic robot, I don’t picture sitting down to my PC to instruct it to fetch me something,” says Bruemmer.

As for the iPhone? The pair plan to harness the popular gadget as an easy and light-weight alternative to lugging around a heavy laptop. Few and Bruemmer plan to modify the Packbot to transmit footage compatible with the palm-sized iPhone. It’s touch-screen should also allow soldiers to manipulate the video captured by the robot more intuitively.

Video of the Packbot in action! Also using the iPhone with Packbot

Via NewScientistTech