'Quality sensors': shape-changing robots for tight spaces.

• Author: Ybarra, Priscilla
• Position: Soldier Technology

* Movie audiences were wowed by the special effects in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when a human-like robot changed its form and squeezed through small holes.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency now wants to take a small step toward making science fiction a reality with a robot that can perform the same shape-shifting functions.

Such a robot would need to be soft, flexible and highly resilient, said Mitchell Zakin, a program manager at DARPA. He's calling the concept the "ChemBot" because its outer layer will have to be made of a pliable skin-like substance rather than of inflexible hard metal.

"During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space," said Zakin. A new class of soft, flexible, mobile objects that "can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable to many missions," he added.

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DARPA and the Army Research Laboratory awarded a $3.3 million contract to iRobot Corp. to develop the technology.

DARPA is looking to the animal world for inspiration. Cats can squeeze their bodies through small openings by narrowing their shoulder blades and chest muscles. Rodents are infamous for invading homes through holes and cracks that are even smaller than their bodies.

The current generation of ground robots that are used for surveillance employ wheels or tracks for mobility. That limits where they can go, and makes them less stealthy.

Other projects are pursuing the same goal. The Army Research Laboratory in April awarded a $37 million contract to BAE Systems to develop insect-like robots to help soldiers conduct urban surveillance. Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute students are developing a "snake-bot" that can also move through small openings, climb and swim while carrying a camera on its tip.

The ChemBots will have to make it through "openings barely larger than their largest 'hard' component," said Zakin. The "hard" component will be the core which contains the necessities for a robot to function. A ChemBot will have to travel a specified distance, push through an opening smaller than itself, reconstitute its shape and then perform a function using an embedded payload, most likely a camera.

DARPA officials have noted that having such a revolutionary robot will be beneficial in any situation that involves searching in a cluttered area that is too small for a soldier to enter.

"We're...