Design of a GPS-enabled multi-modal multi-controlled intelligent spybot

Intelligent robots need to have the ability to adjust their actions, state and behavior (i.e., response), as per the inputs that could be influenced by their immediate environment and/or situation/s. Hence, intelligent robots have diverse applications in domains such as security, automation, industry and agriculture. Such robots when used for surveillance or spying operations by military or police forces are called spybots. This paper aims to highlight the need and importance of developing systems that have the ability to remotely control their functions, response and operation, using multiple-controls and commands given by multiple-modalities. As an example, to give a live physical demonstration of the proposed concepts, a prototype smart spybot is developed. The prototype spybot can be controlled using multi-modalities such as text, touch, speech and gestures. It can be remotely operated using an application running on an Android based smart-phone, or a website, or an interactive program running on a laptop. Each can be connected by wires or wirelessly. The prototype spybot also has decision making capability and obstacle-avoidance feature. It is GPS enabled, and can be used as a tracker also. This intelligent spybot can directly fetch the live-video feeds and the spied data to a website, along with GPS coordinates. Since the prototype spybot is speech and gesture-enabled, it can also be used effectively by the people having restricted physical abilities. The initial performance results and trials are encouraging. The prototype spybot can potentially be used for a range of applications.