Wii-Controlled Robots Made for Combat

Dec. 19, 2008 -- For kids, a new way to control virtual characters is all fun and games. For soldiers, more intuitive controls for robots could mean the difference between life and death.

Using the controller from the popular Nintendo Wii gaming system (the "Wiimote") scientists from the Idaho National Laboratory, working with engineers from the U.S. Army, Foster-Miller, and iRobot, are developing novel ways to control military robots.

"If a soldier wants to find a bomb [with a robot], 95 percent of their attention has to be focused on the screen," said Doug Few, an engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory working on the project. "Using the Wii remote reduces the work load on the operator and also extends the numbers of domains that the robot can be used in."

The current laptop interface that controls the military robots can have up to 50 hard buttons and requires a soldier to place all attention to the monitor, a potentially deadly distraction in a war zone.

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The white, Snickers-sized Wiimote is more intuitive, say the researchers, as evidenced by its popularity among gamers.

The Wiimote is equipped with buttons, an infrared beam and accelerometers. A player can point it at the television screen to aim and fire at objects like a gun, or swing it to play games like virtual tennis.

"It's very easy to drive the robot with the Wiimote," said Slater.

Few and his colleagues at the INL have modified the Wiimote so they can drive a military robot. Using the infrared beam, they can point to a specific place, and the robot, using an artificial intelligence system, will find its own way to that point.