THE REDROID PROJECT

Successfully receiving canary environmental data via hyperterminal.

The Military Redroid Project

Concept

The military redroid project will be a creative rethinking and re-purposing of conventions currently being used for the purpose of military surveillance and reconnaissance droid technology. The project focuses on re-purposing military droid-esque technologies for the purpose of community based participatory sensing, community action, and the obtaining of community based participatory sensing data. The project explores the question of how can technology such as this be used in alternative environments and scenarios other than for military engagement?

I propose that a re-purposed military droid could be used to gain access to and rove an inaccessible area, such as private property, or an area which may posed health concerns. Once a droid has access to this area, it could be used for the purpose of collecting environmental sensor data from these areas. This data could then be presented publicly to the community, and could be used to raise awareness about ones own direct neighborhood surroundings.

The project speculates a future in which military technology, currently in development, has trickled down into the realm of consumer technology. The project examines scenarios in which technologies such as these could be used to the advantage of the people for the democratizing of data via participatory sensing and data collection. Much as the the military uses this type of technology for the purpose of gathering data related to war, this project explores how technology such as this could be speculatively redefined for the purpose of collecting data related to ones own surroundings and environments.

The project will draw on existing technical descriptions of military droid bots and surveillance zeppelins already in production. This will include technical papers related to aerial motion planning, creating spherical shaped robots, and research which explores the creation of a robot that can move between water and land with ease. The project will also pull from research and papers related to the realm of participatory sensing and its relation to communities such as The Neighborhood Networks project by Carl DiSalvo, Participatory Sensing by the CENS, and Remote Sensing of Urban/Suburban Infrastructure by John R Jensen.

The Final Product

The final product will be based around one of two designs which already exists within military development. The first will be the design of the tossable and durable reconnaissance robot, commonly used to traverse rough terrain and mark land mines or indicate unforeseen danger. The second will be based around the field of surveillance blimps or zeppelins used to capture photos and environmental data currently by the military. Using one of these designs as my base model, I plan on creating a droid bot that can rove through inaccessible areas, collect data, and later be retrieved with this data intact.

By the end of the semester, I plan to create and document the creation and testing of one droid bot affixed with environmental sensors, which will either be remote controlled or autonomous for the exploration of inaccessible areas. I will perform two to three test runs in the field, and will produce documentation presenting the work and the success rate of the work. A test run of data and visualization will be presented using The Atlanta Pollution Map.

The Military Redroid Project

10/12- 10/18 – Initial prototyping. mockups, designs.

This week will be spent doing initial mockups and designs for the military re-droid project. The designs will focus on two conceptual designs, one based around military surveillance and blimp technology, and the other will be based around military reconnaissance drones.

10/19 – 10/25 – Building of zeppelin and basic reconnaissance droid

This week will be spent building basic prototypes of the two droid systems. During this phase, the goal will be to create prototypes without any sensor capabilities and to test  basic roving functionality of the two designs. At this point, a decision will be made as to which system is a better solution to the problem of traversing inaccessible areas.

10/26 – 11/1 – Programming control of droid bot

This week will be spent programming the navigational system for the droid design that has been chosen. It will be decided at this point whether the droid will be autonomous or remotely controlled.

11/2 – 11/8 – Initial test and documentation of droid

This week will be spent testing the design out in the field. Video documentation and footage will be created in the process.

11/9 – 11/15 – Sensor building/implementation

This week will be spent implementing and testing sensors on the droid.

11/16 – 11/22 – Sensor building/implementation

This week will be spent implementing communication and/or data gathering of the data collected by the droid.

11/23 – 11/29 – Final test and documentation

This week will be spent  doing final tests of the droid in the field. Data will be collected, and the tests will me filmed and documented.

11/30 – 12/12 – Documentation

These two weeks will be spent creating a video documentation of the project.