2008 Woodie Awards
Robot tour guide, JagBot, being developed
Hannah Skewes
Senior Reporter
Issue date: 3/3/08 Section: News
As more additions are built and planned at the University of South Alabama, a new component of the high-tech variety has worked its way into the plans. Its name is JagBot, and it will soon be the newest and most interactive machine on campus.
JagBot will serve as a robotic tour guide. The ending result will be a robot that can process speech patterns and images. Because of this, JagBot will be able to answer questions for people, shake hands with guests, hand out T-shirts and point out landmarks.
The project is a collaborative effort between the College of Engineering, which will put together the hardware and take care of the visual aspects of the robot, and the USA School of Computer and Information Sciences, which is responsible for programming the robots behaviors and speech patterns, according to Dr. Tom Thomas, co-principal investigator for the project and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
"I have assembled a 'robot team' of mechanical and electrical engineering students," Thomas said. "The team is divided into groups of students that are responsible for various robot subassemblies."
Two co-principal investigators for the School of Computer and Information Sciences are Dr. Michael Doran, professor and coordinator of computer science, and Dr. Gene Simmons, professor of computer and information sciences.
Both are using students to aid in the project's completion. The College of Engineering is employing the use of undergraduate students organized into a "robot team," according to Thomas, to work on the physical assembly of the robot. Some are using the robot as material for their master's thesis.
"Some students are doing design work as part of class assignments. Some are just volunteers," Thomas said.
"We currently have a MS student working on the speech system, and several undergrad students will be working on navigation starting this summer," Doran said. "Our job in CIS is to make the robot act smart and 'know' what it is doing."
The idea for JagBot was born within the National Science Foundation as "MardiBot," a robot that would ride a Mardi Gras float and throw beads to spectators. The idea was brought to Doran and transformed into the idea for a robotic tour guide.
The NSF is contributing a grant of $175,055 to the project along with Mentor Graphics, a company dealing with electronic design automation, providing more than $220,000 in hardware components and software to program the robot.
The College of Engineering began putting the project together physically since the fall of 2007 and hopes to complete the building aspects of the robot by June so that project participants can spend the summer programming the robot.
"The biggest problem we are running into is how to narrow down the almost infinite possibilities to a design that we can implement for a reasonable amount of money in a reasonable amount of time. We are all learning as we go," Thomas said.
JagBot will serve as a robotic tour guide. The ending result will be a robot that can process speech patterns and images. Because of this, JagBot will be able to answer questions for people, shake hands with guests, hand out T-shirts and point out landmarks.
The project is a collaborative effort between the College of Engineering, which will put together the hardware and take care of the visual aspects of the robot, and the USA School of Computer and Information Sciences, which is responsible for programming the robots behaviors and speech patterns, according to Dr. Tom Thomas, co-principal investigator for the project and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
"I have assembled a 'robot team' of mechanical and electrical engineering students," Thomas said. "The team is divided into groups of students that are responsible for various robot subassemblies."
Two co-principal investigators for the School of Computer and Information Sciences are Dr. Michael Doran, professor and coordinator of computer science, and Dr. Gene Simmons, professor of computer and information sciences.
Both are using students to aid in the project's completion. The College of Engineering is employing the use of undergraduate students organized into a "robot team," according to Thomas, to work on the physical assembly of the robot. Some are using the robot as material for their master's thesis.
"Some students are doing design work as part of class assignments. Some are just volunteers," Thomas said.
"We currently have a MS student working on the speech system, and several undergrad students will be working on navigation starting this summer," Doran said. "Our job in CIS is to make the robot act smart and 'know' what it is doing."
The idea for JagBot was born within the National Science Foundation as "MardiBot," a robot that would ride a Mardi Gras float and throw beads to spectators. The idea was brought to Doran and transformed into the idea for a robotic tour guide.
The NSF is contributing a grant of $175,055 to the project along with Mentor Graphics, a company dealing with electronic design automation, providing more than $220,000 in hardware components and software to program the robot.
The College of Engineering began putting the project together physically since the fall of 2007 and hopes to complete the building aspects of the robot by June so that project participants can spend the summer programming the robot.
"The biggest problem we are running into is how to narrow down the almost infinite possibilities to a design that we can implement for a reasonable amount of money in a reasonable amount of time. We are all learning as we go," Thomas said.
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