IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2014 - 14

ros Topics

ROS Expands the World for Quadriplegics
By Steve Cousins and Henry Evans

he most compelling
build the interface that Henry
use of personal robots
imagined (and sketched out
is to provide assistance
using PowerPoint) (Figure 1).
for people with disabilHenry surprised everyone with
ities. For example, many quadhow he used the PR2 once he
riplegics can now move about
had control of it: he moved the
and interact with the world
PR2's gripper to his face, and
outside their bodies using
used it to scratch an itch, sometelerobotics. Over the past few
thing he had not been able to
years, the Robots for Humanity
do for himself in almost ten
project has experimented with
years (Figure 1).
telerobotics, using robots rangThe Willow Garage-sponFigure 1. Henry Evans controlling a PR2 robot using a head
ing from the powerful PR2 tracker and custom user interface.
sored Robots for Humanity
from Willow Garage to relaproject went on for over two
tively simple remote presence
years, bringing in professors
devices, such as the Beam by Suitable their capabilities. These technologies are and students from Brown University,
Technologies, to flying quadrotor ro- usable by anyone who can, through any Washington University, and Oregon
bots. Robotics often has a negative con- means, manipulate a cursor.
State University in addition to the team
notation because of how robots are
from Georgia Tech. Henry was able to
portrayed in Hollywood, but Robots for Henry Evans
use a range of software tools for the PR2
Humanity highlights significant positive Henry Evans has been a mute quadri- to shave himself, send the robot to get
uses for the technology. Rather than the plegic for the past ten years. Before the himself a towel to wipe his face, open a
robot apocalypse of The Terminator, stroke that changed his life, he had refrigerator to retrieve yogurt, and even
this positive vision is closer to the expe- been the chief financial officer of a Sili- hand out candy to kids on Halloween at
rience of the disabled veteran in Avatar con Valley company. With a wonderful the Stanford Shopping Center. In what
or the benign helpfulness of R2D2 and wife and four children, he was living may have been the coup de grace,
C3PO in the Star Wars franchise.
the American dream. After the stroke, Henry operated a PR2 from his home in
In this article, we look at some of the it took him a while to figure out how he Palo Alto, California, to shave Charlie
uses that a few pioneers have explored would continue to make the kind of Kemp in Atlanta, Georgia.
and chart out future directions. The positive impact on the world of which
Many of the tools built for Henry
robot operating system (ROS) has en- we all dream. But Henry found a way.
were based on the ROS visualizer, but
abled many of these early forays by letIn 2011, Henry saw a PR2 on CNN the project also explored Web-based inting people quickly build complex robot and realized that it could be a surrogate terfaces, building on work done at
systems as they imagine them. As more body for him. Instead of quietly dream- Brown University and the Bosch Recommercially available robots with tele- ing about it, he described his vision in an search Laboratory, Palo Alto, California
operation capability become available, e-mail message to Eric Berger of Willow (http://robotwebtools.org/). Upon
technology will enable more people to Garage. As he tells it, this was one of learning of another random e-mail
explore outside of their homes safely many e-mails he sent, but it was one of Henry had posted, this one expressing
and regularly and otherwise expand the few that were answered. In response the desire to explore his yard with a
to his e-mail, Steve Cousins of Willow camera drone, Chad Jenkins and his
Garage and Charlie Kemp from Georgia students from Brown University set up
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2014.2314021
Date of publication: 10 June 2014
Tech pulled together a project team to an AR Parrot quadrotor with a camera

IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

June 2014

http://www.robotwebtools.org/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2014