Thursday, August 13, 1998

A Tour-Guide Robot Named Minerva Roams a Smithsonian Museum By JEFFREY R. YOUNG WASHINGTON In a closed-off area of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History this week, seven computer scientists have been giving a robotic tour guide a winning smile in preparation for its debut later this month. During a trial run, the robot's mouth -- a line of red plastic strips attached to a few small motors -- arcs into a grin when someone approaches. But suddenly the system crashes, and the mouth takes on a twisted, inhuman expression. Rewriting a few lines of computer code should restore happiness, the scientists say. Researchers run their tour-guide robot, Minerva, through tests in a closed-off area of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. If all goes well, the robot will soon be rolling through a busy technology exhibit on the floor below, describing artifacts and offering candy to children. The project's goal is not to replace human tour guides, but to create a robot that can move through any crowded room without running into people or objects. The American-history museum, with thousands of visitors strolling through each day, will be the robot's ultimate challenge. The robot is named Minerva, for the Roman goddess of wisdom, although it looks more like a short cousin of the robot from the television series Lost in Space. It is the creation of scientists from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Bonn, in Germany. The researchers have been coaching Minerva regularly until well past midnight to make sure it knows its way around the exhibit space. The plastic mouth is a last-minute addition to give the robot more personality. A box of candy will be placed on board to encourage children to approach. Sebastian Thrun, a research computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon who is directing the project, says his team is also preparing Smithsonian visitors for the future. "Robots will invade normal people's lives in the next 10 years," he says. The metal-and-plastic tour guide is "a great way to get robotics to people," he adds. "They'll see it, they'll react to it, they'll start thinking about robots and what they could do for them." From August 24 to September 5, Minerva will be on duty in the museum's "A Material World" exhibit, which shows how wood, metal, and synthetic materials have influenced people's lives. Visitors will be able to ask the robot any of six questions by pressing a touch-screen display on its back. The robot will then wheel over to a related item in the exhibit and begin talking about it. Minerva's female voice is provided by a drama professor at Carnegie Mellon. Hidden behind plastic paneling in the robot's torso are dozens of sensors that continually check for obstacles. Beams of infrared light radiate from the front and back, and several sonar units click quietly, measuring the surroundings several times each second. Two video cameras serve as Minerva's eyes. A third camera, mounted on the robot's back, points at the ceiling, which serves as a useful reference point because it is not cluttered with display cases and other furnishings that could confuse Minerva. If someone is in Minerva's way, it will stop, look in the direction it wants to go, and wait for the person to move. If that doesn't work, it will go around the person. Sometimes, Minerva will honk its horn to try to clear the way. Minerva represents about four years' worth of work. An earlier, bulkier model, named Rhino, gave tours last year at the Bonn branch of the Deutsches Museum. During its one-week stint, it managed to navigate the space without hitting anyone, though a couple of visitors ran into the robot by mistake. "We sort of kept a low profile because we weren't quite sure we could pull it off," says Mr. Thrun. This time, the researchers are more confident, and they are planning a media event to give Minerva her 15 minutes of fame on August 27. People on the Internet will also be able to see the robot in action. A World-Wide Web site for the museum's Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, which is sponsoring the robot's visit, will allow users to interact with Minerva. "You can look through the robot's eyes so you can see what the robot sees," says Wolfram Burgard, a research scientist at the University of Bonn who is working on the project. "You can become a virtual visitor to the museum." At certain times, visitors to the Web site will be able to choose where the robot goes. Mr. Thrun says that robots like Minerva could one day serve as personal assistants to elderly people, as janitors, or as entertainers. "Robotics used to be this cool thing that didn't work," he says. "Now it's this cool thing that does work." After Minerva's job here is done, the researchers will go back to their universities and spend about six months writing scientific papers about what they've learned. But this week they're drinking cup after cup of coffee, and helping Minerva learn to move around the history museum. "Every different place has different challenges," says Mr. Thrun. The problem with the smile, he adds, is already fixed.