5D Robotics Inc. is among many companies attempting to gain a foothold in the robotics software market. The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company is developing a common framework that will allow some degree of standardization among robot platforms. The firm’s focus, however, differs from that of other companies developing robotics frameworks.
While other software solution providers concentrate on developers, 5D Robotics is creating software interfaces for the end users of robots. By offering a framework for user-commanded behaviors and autonomy that will work for robots across multiple market sectors, 5D Robotics hopes to lead the marketplace in user-interaction software for robotics systems.
5D Robotics was spun out of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in August 2009. The company, which currently employs 10 people, is privately funded and has no plans to obtain additional investments in the near future.
The small team of researchers and entrepreneurs who founded 5D Robotics wanted to leverage the extensive amounts of INL research in human-robot interaction and behavioral control. INL military robotics research had revealed two interesting problems.
First, manufacturers of robotic and unmanned systems all developed their own user interfaces, and each required new training of military personnel to carry out similar tasks among different systems.
Second, the Department of Defense wanted an end-to-end common user interface solution for its Programs of Record, but was unwilling to provide funding for the pure research required for individual unmanned system companies to develop their own solution. The cofounders of 5D Robotics believed that their INL research background had them well positioned to provide a solution that would address both.
5D Robotics produces a modular software and hardware subsystem that can be integrated into existing robotic platforms to provide intuitive and standardized behavioral control interfaces to an end user. What the end user sees is a graphical user interface (GUI) that can be customized for specific platforms.
For example, two unmanned ground vehicles used for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) that come from two different vendors will likely have minor differences in the interface, though the commanded missions and behaviors are functionally identical. Though widgets and colors are custom, the actual communication with the robot-the interface to the behaviors it carries out-is part of 5D Robotics’ standard framework, common across any platform into which it is integrated.
As a software company, 5D Robotics has worked to form partnerships with hardware companies to provide complete solutions. One strategic partnership, with American Reliance Inc. (AMREL), a manufacturer of ruggedized mobile computing solutions, will allow 5D Robotics to integrate its user interface with AMREL’s operator workstations. The resulting system is offered as a standalone hardware/software solution for a common operator computer.
Another partnership, with Antenna Products’ True Mesh Networks, results in a 5D Robotics’ offering that includes a rapidly deployable wireless network capability, a requirement for robot-to-robot communication and planning. 5D has also begun work with DeVivo Automated Systems Technology, a consulting company with expertise in JAUS, an open architecture for unmanned systems used by the Department of Defense.
Given the company’s background with the INL, most of 5D Robotics’ current applications are military-related, specifically, mission-planning and behavioral control interfaces for unmanned ground vehicles that map minefields, perform explosive ordnance disposal, and other similar missions.
The company has a number of ongoing projects in intelligent mobile manipulation, improvised explosive device (IED) neutralization, and human-robot interaction funded by organizations like the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Army’s ARDEC.
5D Robotics, however, is beginning to branch out. The company has partnered with Segway to integrate 5D’s interface on the Segway Robotics Mobility Platform (RMP), which is used extensively in research labs. Despite its defense origins, 5D Robotics considers its Segway partnership as just the first step in the company’s efforts to have its software working with robots and unmanned systems across multiple industries.
5D Robotics’ revenue currently originates from two sources. The first, which is also its long-term revenue source, comes from licensing for software installed on robot platforms and on operator interface hardware.
The second, which may prove to be more lucrative in the short term, is consulting services for companies interested in integrating 5D technology into their existing platforms. Until a more unified behavioral mission standard can be adopted for different types of robotic systems, each integration will require some degree of customization for its target platform, allowing 5D Robotics to generate revenue while building strong working relationships with its early customers.
While robotics companies will be the ones purchasing and integrating the 5D Robotics software into their platforms, the systems’ end users are the EOD technicians, factory workers, and consumers who actually purchase 5D-enabled robots. The requirements of the two groups differ in many respects, and supporting both groups can be difficult to manage.
But 5D Robotics believes that the value proposition to its customers is in expanding robot manufacturers’ markets. By supporting a common framework, the company says, the manufacturers can sell more robots to customers eager for efficiencies in training and operation. As an example, the company cites one of its first integration efforts, during which it was able to cut in half the mission time required for a robot platform to execute an anti-chemical-warfare mission. 5D Robotics also believes that its software will accelerate the addition of autonomous behaviors onto platforms that were previously limited to teleoperation.
5D hopes to drive everyone toward a common interface framework-as appropriate for different applications-thereby avoiding the necessity to customize software among different robots in the same application space. Company officials have indicated that they believe this goal is still a ways off.
In the near term, however, 5D Robotics is searching for new applications for autonomy, with a focus on energy efficiency. One company representative gave the example of autonomous cars and trucks that, with the right behaviors, can optimize energy use in traffic, on the consumer side, or in military convoys, on the defense side.
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