help when your body fails money in electronics in Silicon Valley (or by getting a government grant). I even tried,
Evans, the company
All of the technologies he has used, includ-
and the lab are
my environment,” he writes. Robotics can
halfheartedly, raising money, and sent out many emails soliciting help. Nothing stuck until I met Steve [Cousins, president and CEO of Willow Garage] and Charlie. It turned out they were already doing this, and we just joined forces. They refined my interface and liked the name.” The team has developed a variety of interfaces, tools and control software for Evans to use. All of the controls are Web based, so he doesn’t need to download anything, according to Georgia Tech graduate student Philip Grice. Evans had earlier used
“serve as an interface between the person’s mind and their environment (in any number
collaborating on a
of ways) when they can no longer do it with their body.”
project called Robots
He does have some thoughts for improvements, however.
for Humanity, aimed at showing the potential for personal robots
PowerPoint to design an interface for using the robot.
ing the robot, “have to help me manipulate
to assist people with
This spring, researchers from Georgia Tech his wife Jane in California. For the first time
face, a direct BMI (brain-machine interface) would be ideal.” Also, future devices must adhere to what he calls the “caregiver principle.” “The following principle is also fundamental to whatever we do. It is not obvious and took me years to learn. It is: The caregiver
disabilities.
and Willow Garage met with Evans and
“I would like a faster communications inter-
principle — no matter how much assistance a device provides to a patient, it will not
in a decade, he was able to control the
be used regularly unless it also takes no
robot and scratch his own face. On a later
time to either set up or use by the caregiver
visit, he was able to use PR2 to shave his
“Everybody, including me, is busily work-
and unless it makes the cargiver’s life … a
own cheek.
ing on the next series of capabilities and in-
lot easier (does not apply to medical treat-
terfaces, and I would prefer to wait until we
ments ordered by the physician).”
“It is much easier to do something yourself (via the robot) than it is to try to describe to someone else what I want done,” he writes. “It’s also really satisfying to have complete control over what you say/do, like most people do.”
know that they work before we talk about them,” he writes. “We should have more to say by Christmas. In general, though, I often remotely pilot the robot at Georgia Tech, and I provide user feedback to every-
Georgia Tech’s Kemp says, “This is just the beginning. We hope to really push on these technologies so robots like this can actually help people every day.”
body.”
Evans is able to issue commands to the PR2, which can be either in the same room with him or thousands of miles away — he often remotely controls Georgia Tech’s PR2 from his home. Using a head tracker, he can directly move the robot’s body, including its arms and head. He can also invoke the robot’s autonomous behaviors, such as having it
SCAN IT
or
Click IT:
move to his wheelchair and reach out to
To see a video about Henry Evan’s work with Willow
a pre-selected location so he could scratch
Garage and Georgia Tech, click this barcode or scan it
his face.
with your smartphone.
Mission Critical
•
Fall 2011
25