May 20th, 2011 
Jay 
If you like to read up on technology as much as I do, then there is no doubt you’ve missed out on the increasingly important role that robots play in our society.
Robotics is going to be big. And Google has taken notice. Their Android Open Accessory API was already mentioned earlier on this website. Devices that support this API will be able to receive messages from other Android devices, for which programmer’s can make software using Android @ Home.
Google aims to increase Android’s market share even more by taking its much revered operating system to robotics! In order to achieve this goal, rosjava has recently been launched.
Cloud Aware Android Robots
The word ‘android’ means ‘human shaped robot’, so it is only fitting that this operating system would run on an actual robot. At Google I/O, Google has reveiled its plans to bring Android to robots and to also make them cloud aware.
In cloud computing, a large number of computers is hosted by a company or an institution, providing large amounts of computational power for anybody that requires it. At the moment, computing power from the cloud is going to cost you money.
It is likely that it will continue to cost money for the time being. But with computation become ever more cheaper, it is likely that there will be certain amounts of free computational power available to the masses.
So why is it so important that robots will be connected to a computation cloud? Simply put:
- If a number of robots are aware of each other’s presence, locations, actions and situations through cloud communication, they will effectively know more than they did if they had not been in touch with each other.
- When robots can offload heavy computation work to the cloud, then they will not require expensive, high-end computer chips to perform the computations locally.
- Since robots won’t need to have costly, high-end CPUs onboard, they also won’t be wasting their precious battery life on doing calculations with them.
In summary, cloud aware Android robots would have the potential to work together efficiently and with low power consumption.
But what if there is no cloud connection? Would the robots then simply turn into useless scraps of metal and plastic? No, says Ryan Hickman, project manager of Google. The robots would simply retain the last bits of data they have received and operate on those until the cloud connection comes back.
Companies Working On Android Robots Right Now
Google is talking to and cooperating with companies such as Willow Garage, iRobot and the toy manufacturer Hasbro in order to realize the Android dream.
At Google I/O, iRobot demonstrated robots that used a tablet as eyes as well as control units. Both Google and Willow Garage demonstrated how an Android tablet could function as the eyes and ears of Willow Garage’s PR2 robot (pictured above).
Google is currently working with NASA’s Ames Research Center on getting Android running on desert rovers, while maintaining a connection to each other at all times.
The one problem with deserts is that there is no mobile connection there. Not much demand in the desert, after all. That’s why Google is thinking of an Android powered flying drone that flies up to desert rovers and exchanges data between them.
Android Robot Prices
At this time, Android robotics is still in its infancy. It will be big in the future, no doubt. But it’s going to be a number of years before we get to see the first Androids set foot in our society.
Prices are still too high. Cloud-robot latency worries are still too much of an issue. But technology never stands still. Problems will be solved. Advances will be made.
Once prices come down (and they will) and improvements to open source robotics platforms are made, developers worldwide will likely hop on the bandwagon and help realize the Android future that Google has in store for the world!
Google I/O Android Robotics Video
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