Humour

The Chai Server rolls on (part 2)

T A Balasubramanian writes about Arnibo, a robotic dog inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Doodh Byramji continues his record of what happens when he sets out to meet the beautiful Professor Ironica Asimova, an acknowledged expert on robotics and Head of Ironica Robotica. Known as Doodh, or Doodhi, the tireless Byramji is the perennially baffled Design Engineer of Baffle Technologies, otherwise called Baff-Tech. His mission is to upgrade the prototype of the Chai Server into a technologically advanced robot.

11.00 am: Prof Asimova shows me around the periphery of the office. “This is very impressive, Prof Asimova. What more will computers do in the future? Will they all be like these Kibo puppies, running around our feet, amusing us?”

In response, my elegant hostess points outside on the lawn, where I see what looks like a different kind of robotic dog, a big, hulking, sleeker metallic version of the tiny, cuddly Kibos inside.

“What is that, Prof Asimova?,” I ask.

“Ah, that is Arnibo, the high-end power user version of Kibo,” says the lady, making a fist with her hand. “He is muscular and strong, like Arnie. You know, the body-builder, Schwarzenegger, the relentless Terminator robot? Arnie is the first of a new breed of walking robots that is more than a toy. We hope he will revolutionise transport by carrying huge payloads.”

Arnibo trots arrogantly across the landscape on muscular metallic feet, splashing through puddles and pushing through the long grass. He appeared to be slow and clunky by the standards of most dogs, but a walking robot modelled after Arnie can hardly be expected to sprint like a greyhound, even if he had four feet.

“We think Arnibo will be of great use for military work. It is an irony that as technology increases, soldiers are weighed down with more and more kit, from satellite navigation to battlefield computers, and loads can often exceed 40 kilos. An Arnibo like that one will be a semi-autonomous robot who will carry that load effortlessly. He will accompany soldiers on terrain unsuitable for wheeled vehicles. He will replace the traditional pack animals like mules and camels. Naturally, for such a role, Arnibo must be capable of equalling the human marching pace.”

“It must be difficult, even for a strong robot, to go into rough places like jungles and mountains,” I pipe in.

“Difficult, yes, but not impossible, Doodh. There have been earlier shots at making something like Arnibo, you know. General Electric tried to build the Quadruped Transporter, otherwise known as the Walking Truck or Quadribo, for use in the jungles. It was clumsy, looking like a car with legs instead of wheels. A petrol engine powered the hydraulics, and the driver controlled the legs using his own arms and legs. Quadribo carried out impressive demonstrations, including climbing on to a platform built out of railway sleepers. But it was not a huge success.”

“What happened to the Quadribo?”

“Too ambitious, I would say. Quadribo was cumbersome and required a skilled operator due to the limitations of the electronics of the day. The programme was cancelled; perhaps, its most celebrated outcome was to provide George Lucas with the inspiration for the four-legged Imperial Combat Walkers you might have seen in The Empire Strikes Back.”

“Yes, of course. They had these long, awkward feet with clunky metal shoes and they got tripped by the Jedi and their allies,” I reply since I am an ardent Lucas fan, and have watched all the Star Wars prequels and sequels with the curiosity and fascination of a little kid. In fact, my wife Darjeeling says I even look like a little kid.

“Arnibo here has far more advanced electronics and will work with minimal human guidance, perhaps no more than an instruction on who to follow,” says Prof Asimova. “Let me give you the secret, Doodh—we are actually learning from nature. These dogs borrow their pedigree from nature. Early biomimetic robotics programmes copied the designs that nature has perfected over millions of years, making robot snakes and lobsters. Even so, biomimetic implies a slavish imitation of nature, and we don’t want to be just mimics, do we?”

“Of course not, Prof Asimova. What do we want to be?” I query brightly.

“What we are doing is biodynotics. Arnibo is the first of a series of biologically inspired dynamic robots. Biodynotics is not just plain mimicry—we take the physical principles of nature, then use them in robots. My team is a hotchpotch of talent, you know, from MIT, Harvard and Stanford—who knows, maybe from Baff-Tech too, one day?” she says, winking. “One of our guys is a biologist with expertise in animal locomotion, and Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is helping integrate the vision system.”

1.20 pm: I have been following Arnibo around, talking constantly to Prof Asimova. “It must be fascinating, having these programmed beasts of burden pick their way through all kinds of unfamiliar territory without folding up,” I say, watching Arnibo stumble near a steep hillock.

“Well, Doodh, there are trade-offs with speed, the roughness of the terrain and the payload,” says Ironica, laughing. “Fitting all that brute strength and sensitive movement into a self-contained package is a challenge, as is perfecting the control system. You and I judge depth and height automatically when we walk. You know instinctively that carrying a heavy pack means you have to look for the shallowest gradient. Arnibo’s designers are steadily building in the same locomotive principles. But surprisingly, the amount of computing power is quite modest, equivalent to a high-end desktop PC.”

Arnibo may be low in brainpower, but I am told that he weighs 70 kg, and is nimble enough to climb a 30-degree slope hoisting a load of more than 50 kg. He drinks petrol at the moment, but other sources of energy are under investigation.

“The maximum load, even to keep up with marching pace,” Ironica says, “is determined by the force on the leg at its deepest bend, which is greatest on steeper slopes.”

“Do you think I could ever afford to get one of these big bone-crushers to carry my furniture around the house? Darjeeling would be appreciative,” I remark.

“That’s a little optimistic, I would say,” laughs Ironica. “The first household Arnibo will be expensive as he will be packed with many aerospace-grade components, but I estimate that the price of a home version could be close to that of a car. Now Darjeeling, I am sure, would love that.”

(to be continued next week)