1. 8 MISSION CRITICAL
How did you first get interested in robotics
and human-machine interaction?
When a little-known movie called “Star Wars” came out in,
I think, 1977 I saw R2-D2 on the screen, and that was it
from there. I think I was in love with robotics ever since I
saw that movie.
After high school I went into the Marine Corps and did
special operations for a few years. ... And then got out and
went to the University of Maryland where I studied computer
science and physics and worked at their Space Systems Lab
doing space robotics to develop highly dexterous manipula-
tor arms that would do satellite servicing in orbit. And we
were pretty darn close to a shuttle launch for our ranger robot
from Space Systems Lab, and then we got pushed back due to
issues with the Russians and their payloads.
At Space Systems Lab … I met Dr. Cori Lathan and
founded AnthroTronix. One of our first con-
tracts was with DARPA to do human-robot
interaction for special operations type mis-
sions, and so that is how the company
got started.
The human-machine interaction
started with AnthroTronix control-
ling tactical unmanned ground
vehicles for DARPA.
What did you look forward to growing
up and accomplishing in robotics?
When I saw R2-D2 and C-3PO and later,
when I started to look at what actual real-world
robotics were doing and what they weren’t able
to do, I quickly realized that it was not a me-
chanical engineering issue that was holding
robotics back. It was mostly intelligence and
sensor issues, even to this day. So I decided
to study computer science to address the
artificial intelligence and minored in
physics in order to understand sensing the
world and sensor technologies, because
those were the two weaknesses — and
still are — for robotics, preventing
them from being real teammates —
domestic, commercial, battlefield.
JACK VICEFOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF AnthroTronix

2. Q&A
AnthroTronix is a research and development firm that specializes
in the development of human-machine interface technology;
wearable computing and robotic control systems; and design,
development and testing of training simulation tools.
Why is human-machine
interaction important?
Human-machine interactions are
extremely important, because rarely
are these robotic assets, aside from
factories, rarely are they working
alone, isolated from human involve-
ment. So the human-robot interac-
tion component, which is often
overlooked by roboticists as they de-
sign functional robotics — the user
interface — the human interaction
component usually comes last, so
it’s given the least amount of plan-
ning and thought.
Since full autonomy for behav-
iors has not yet come to fruition,
the requirements that the humans
stay in the loop on the robotic
behaviors is still there. Even when
the complex behaviors start to really
perform well, the robots are still
going to be working in a human
world, and so human-robot inter-
action on a social level will still be
required even if it’s not us driving
their individual joint angles or indi-
vidual motors anymore.
What can robotics add to our
lives? How do they improve the
way we perform daily tasks?
Just as the first hammer [and] the
first tool was an extension of the
human hand’s capability, robot-
ics are an extension of our own
capability. With our cellphones, we
no longer have to remember phone
numbers. The memory of our
cellphones stores phone numbers,
addresses and gigabytes more.
And so, similar to that, when
the robot revolution, which we’re
in the early stages of, truly happens,
robotics will extend our capabili-
ties physically and cognitively, both
in them being the ultimate tool in
the sense of a machine that can do
nearly anything that a human can
when that day comes, but also the
sensor technologies going into ro-
botics, that [then are] feeding back
into kind of the medical aspect of
adding sensors to humans and aug-
menting human capabilities with
a lot of the technology that comes
from the field of robotics.
How about you personally ­—
what things are you most look-
ing forward to robots bringing
to your life in the future?
I’m currently, actually right before
you called, working on my robot
that I do in my spare time. One of
the things it’s going to do is inter-
act with my son and walk him to
school on days that I can’t. Which
isn’t a far walk, but to have the child
be remotely monitored by a semi-
autonomous vehicle is one example.
Picking up dirty socks around the
house is another. Those are just the
more personal things, obviously.
I have a robot that sweeps the
floor. I need the one that mops,
and then one that would fly to the
mailbox and retrieve the mail. And
obviously I shouldn’t have to drive
my car. It should drive itself when
I don’t feel like driving it. And
then also, having Amazon deliver
packages even faster through UAVs
[unmanned aerial vehicles].
Loading and unloading the
dishwasher is a popular one.
Yes, so I know how difficult dexter-
ous robotics is, and that’s why pick-
ing up socks off the floor is a task
that will be achieved much sooner
than unloading the dishwasher,
though I’d love a robot to be able to
unload the dishwasher. But its truly
amazing how dexterous the human
hand is and how many things we
can do and how multifunctional
it is. It is absolutely amazing when
you try to reproduce some of its
functionality. You really gain an ap-
preciation for it.
The real key with robots or the
hammer, any tool that humans in-
vent, is to understand the materials
that we have to use to build these
devices, these tools, and understand
their strengths and weaknesses.
Highly dexterous manipulation is
potentially a weakness of robot-
ics. Being self-aware and sentient
has been a weakness of robotics
for quite a while, but having high
mobility and being able to get up
and down stairs and being able to
vacuum and being able to pick up
things around the house or drive
around your house in the night and
provide security when you’re away,
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3. 10 MISSION CRITICAL
for example, you don’t need full
home automation. You just need a
fairly smart mobile device that will
keep an eye on things — housesit-
ting. And being able to sit in one
spot and do something repetitively,
you know, dull, dirty or dangerous
— the three Ds of robotics — be-
ing able to do that is one of the
strengths of robotics. And then,
being able to go into a burning
building and not catch on fire and
not run out of oxygen, these are lots
of strengths of robotics that we can
capitalize on.
AnthroTronix works on a variety
of technologies that involve
human-machine interaction.
What specific projects showcase
robotic technology improving the
human experience?
Our glove technology for the warf-
ighter in the field, the reason being
is that it enables the warfighter
in the field, the soldier or Marine
who is on the ground, on patrol,
and close to enemy contact to give
command-and-control signals to
the robotic assets, whether they’re
ground or aerial, using gestures, us-
ing hand and arm signals just as the
soldier or Marine may do to com-
municate with fellow warfighters.
So this capability allows the
warfighter to carry less equipment,
because they don’t have to carry a
separate controller device, a separate
portable joystick, and it allows them
to go from holding their weapon di-
rectly to giving command-and-con-
trol signals to the robot and back to
holding the weapon without ever
taking their eyes off their sector of
security. So they’re able to do that
with minimal compromise of their
own personal security in the field.
And that’s worth its weight in gold.
The other component of that,
we also do receiving messages back
from the robot, and what we focus
on is a haptic feedback system
in which the messaging from the
robot or from other teammates can
come in through your skin, actually
through your combat vest. Now we
have a bunch of buzzers around the
waist and on the torso that would
buzz you with messages, both tem-
poral messages and spatial messages
giving you information about your
surroundings that the robotic asset
has detected, for example.
So if one UAV or UGV
[unmanned ground vehicle] were
to spot an enemy position, that
information of that location of the
enemy position could be relayed to
all the members of the patrol hapti-
cally through their skin without
obstructing their vision or their
hearing, giving them spatial cues
as to the direction of the threat,
without giving them an azimuth
in which they have to use their
compass to figure out exactly which
direction that is.
How do the haptic signals trans-
late into tangible information?
It’s a haptic language of a series of
buzzers, so in the vest for example,
there could be a message that is a
buzzing on the front and then the
back and then the front and then
the back, and you would remember
that means sniper, and then three
buzzes around your waist in a given
direction would mean 300 meters
in the direction you felt those three
buzzes. So now you know sniper,
300 meters, and you know the
general direction from your current
orientation.
Eventually, do you think the
distinction between humans and
robots will still be there? Or will
they become a natural extension
of us, something we just accept
as a part of us?
The technology will be there to
integrate humans with machines to
whatever extent humans are will-
ing to psychologically accept, and
that’s the variable I’m not entirely
clear on — what level of cyborg are
people willing to go to, to increase
performance. I believe it will hap-
pen. I believe we will augment our
strength and our cognition with
digital technologies in the future.
And at the same time with genetic
engineering, those two may con-
verge in which we’re genetically
engineering and connecting tissues
to circuits at the same time, that is
we may genetically engineer tissues
to implant in ourselves in order to
better connect us to circuits.