{"485281":{"#nid":"485281","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Welcome to the Robot Zoo","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELife is good for Georgia Tech\u0027s roboticists.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBuoyed by growing interest in the field, the Institute\u0027s robotics research has earned accolades around the world, and a few robots have become stars themselves. (You\u2019ve probably seen coverage of Ayanna Howard\u2019s math-tutor bot or Magnus Egerstedt\u2019s dancing humanoids in your Facebook feed.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut robots are expensive, and not every aspiring engineer can work in the gilded labs of Georgia Tech. And that\u2019s where Egerstedt, the Schlumberger Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, comes in.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbout a year ago, he had an idea: What if he could break the barriers that keep people out of his field by building a robotics playground for everyone? He mulled over the logistics and, after persuading a few professors and Ph.D. students to join him, he planned the Robotarium.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIf all goes according to his designs, the Robotarium will become Georgia Tech\u2019s robot zoo, a home to machines of all shapes and sizes. They\u2019ll be accessible to anyone in the world, which means remote users will be able to upload their own code, run their own experiments, and test their own ideas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESound extreme? It is. But Egerstedt never lets that stand in his way.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is going to go big,\u201d he promises.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETearing Down the Wall\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe possibilities stretch in every direction. If Egerstedt can fill his menagerie with a diverse collection of machines, the Robotarium could become a lab for both basic tests and high-level research. That means, Egerstedt says, that the project might entice everyone from middle school science students to professors like him and his collaborators.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAaron Ames, an associate professor in ECE and the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, is one of those collaborators. Like Egerstedt, he\u2019s frustrated that so few people have access to pricey hardware \u2013 the linchpin behind most robotics research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat\u2019s the wall that prevents most academic work from translating to the commercial domain to the everyday-life domain,\u201d Ames says, \u201cand this will break that open. This will tear down that wall.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlong with Ames, Egerstedt also enlisted the help of Professors Raheem Beyah (of ECE), and Eric Feron (from the School of Aerospace Engineering), and Blair MacIntyre (from the School of Interactive Computing) to make the idea a reality. The National Science Foundation awarded the team $2.5a million dollars to kick-start the work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA few Ph.D. students are also helping outinvolved. Chief among them is Daniel Pickem, who is studying robotic self-assembly under Egerstedt and ECE Professor Jeff Shamma. He shares Egerstedt\u2019s vision for what the Robotarium could become.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a powerful paradigm: maintenance-free, hassle-free robotics,\u201d Pickem says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Long View\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ERight now, Pickem spends many of his days debugging code and tweaking the boards of GRITSBots, tiny robots designed in Egerstedt\u2019s Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab. These creatures live on a large table that is, in a way, the first incarnation of the Robotarium.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIts gleaming white surface makes it resemble an air hockey table. But there\u2019s important work being done here: The GRITSBots can move and interact with each other based on remote users\u2019 controls. The table offers a glimpse of the Robotarium in miniature, and it allows Egerstedt and his colleagues to anticipate potential problems with a facility that\u2019s accessible to anyone.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA key concern is safety, which is being overseen by Ames.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe first thing that\u2019s going to happen when you open it to the public is someone is going to try to break it,\u201d he acknowledges. He\u2019s already developed an algorithm to prevent robots from colliding with each other, but there\u2019s a lot more work to come.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EToday, there is just the white table. Egerstedt estimates another three to five years could pass before the full Robotarium is complete.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe likes taking the long view. Though he is known for championing novel \u2013 and sometimes untested \u2013 ways to make robotics more accessible, his ideas are informed by his past experiences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs the professor of one of Georgia Tech\u2019s early massive open online courses (MOOCs), he aimed to make advanced controls coursework available to anyone. After that, he contemplated using the principles of the MOOC for larger projects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was thinking: What does a MOOC look like in research?\u201d he says. (A robot zoo, apparently.)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Crystal Cathedral\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cbr \/\u003EBut what\u2019s in it for Georgia Tech and the College of Engineering? A lot of exposure, of course, but also the chance to be at the vanguard of robotics. Ames points out that if Georgia Tech unlocks the doors to its advanced machinery, it could set off a sea change in the field.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere is also the appeal of sheer theatrics, which could captivate people who might not otherwise be interested.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPart of the vision is almost performance art,\u201d Egerstedt says. Once the Robotarium is operating at peak capacity, its robots will be visible to anyone with an Internet connection, so they \u201cshould always be on and doing something compelling.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEventually, he envisions the Robotarium as a \u201ccrystal cathedral\u201d smack in the center of the campus, where students and professors will have front-row seats to its humanoids, flying machines, and other wonders.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgain, it sounds extreme. But if anyone can get it done, it\u2019s probably Egerstedt, one of Georgia Tech\u2019s most effective preachers of the gospel of robotics.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat doesn\u2019t mean he doesn\u2019t expect some resistance along the way, though, and he knows there will only be one way to appease the Robotarium\u2019s naysayers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe only weapon,\u201d Egerstedt says, \u201cis success.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Inside Georgia Tech\u0027s Robotarium"}],"field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Professor Magnus Egerstedt\u0027s aims to make robots accessible to almost anyone."}],"uid":"28075","created_gmt":"2016-01-12 16:47:37","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:24","author":"Lyndsey Lewis","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-01-12T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-01-12T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"485251":{"id":"485251","type":"image","title":"CoE Robotarium 2016 robot","body":null,"created":"1452898800","gmt_created":"2016-01-15 23:00:00","changed":"1475895239","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:59","alt":"CoE Robotarium 2016 robot","file":{"fid":"204289","name":"gatech_robotarium_bbb6933_1200w.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6933_1200w_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6933_1200w_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":372402,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6933_1200w_0.jpg?itok=8jCpcYVH"}},"485261":{"id":"485261","type":"image","title":"CoE Robotarium 2016 professors","body":null,"created":"1452898800","gmt_created":"2016-01-15 23:00:00","changed":"1475895239","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:59","alt":"CoE Robotarium 2016 professors","file":{"fid":"204296","name":"gatech_robotarium_bbb6876_1200w.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6876_1200w_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6876_1200w_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":628239,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6876_1200w_0.jpg?itok=yxdqA0xM"}},"485271":{"id":"485271","type":"image","title":"CoE Robotarium 2016 table","body":null,"created":"1452898800","gmt_created":"2016-01-15 23:00:00","changed":"1475895239","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:53:59","alt":"CoE Robotarium 2016 table","file":{"fid":"204297","name":"gatech_robotarium_bbb6719_1200w.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6719_1200w_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6719_1200w_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":533161,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gatech_robotarium_bbb6719_1200w_0.jpg?itok=Fa77t4aJ"}}},"media_ids":["485251","485261","485271"],"groups":[{"id":"1237","name":"College of Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"152","name":"Robotics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"129561","name":"Aaron Ames"},{"id":"1600","name":"Blair MacIntrye"},{"id":"130241","name":"Eric Feron"},{"id":"11528","name":"Magnus Egerstedt"},{"id":"67741","name":"Raheem Beyah"},{"id":"169814","name":"Robotarium"},{"id":"2352","name":"robots"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"},{"id":"39521","name":"Robotics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELyndsey Lewis\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["lyndseylewis@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}