Robotic Bollards on the Run

Have you always wanted a robot? Do you need to improve work zone safety? Could you use a few intelligent construction cones on a job site? Well, Shane Farritor of University of Nebraska-Lincoln?EUR??,,????'???s Robotics and Mechatronics lab has just what you need. His prototype robotic bollards look just like all the other normal orange safety barrels, but these can self deploy and self-retrieve with just a minimum of human help. Controlled at a distance by a worker on a computer console, they can move independently, they can be placed in parallel, and then they be reconfigured as the work area changes. The Nebraska team developed software that would work with an image of the site produced by a digital camera on top of the truck. Then, using coordinates, a worker in the truck can send instructions to a ?EUR??,,????'??bell weather?EUR??,,????'??, or head robot. That robot then leads all the others out and places them correctly. The head robot makes sure the others ?EUR??,,????'??toe the line?EUR??,,????'?? and can also bring in any badly behaved robots. They can even be programmed in advance. If the bollards need to be in one place before lunch and then moved after lunch there?EUR??,,????'???s no need to go out, collect them all, and then rearrange them. The only difficulty may be in keeping the robots ?EUR??,,????'??stupid?EUR??,,????'?? enough so they?EUR??,,????'???ll be dependable. After all, it would be annoying if one were to run off someplace to start a little robotic life of its own. Proper traffic control is very important during highway work, but accidents can still occur because of poor work zone design or driver negligence. Work on the idea began in 2002 with a grant from the National Academy of Sciences in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board. Now Professor Farritor and his team are working to get the price down, hopefully to about $200.