MobileRobots Inc Overcomes Hurdle of Dynamic Robot Navigation, Without GPS!

AMHERST, NH, Mar 12 (MARKET WIRE) --
MobileRobots Inc announced today that it has the first robot guidance system
that can self-navigate and autonomously update its knowledge of its
surroundings, even
when signals from Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are blocked. The
announcement signals that the company is nearing its 12-year, $15-million dollar
researchprogram to create an out-of-the-box ubiquitous commercial autonomous
robot
guidance system that can drive robots seamlessly indoors and out.

As anyone who's driven their GPS system through a tunnel knows, GPS is
onlygood when there's a signal. Without it, even DARPA Grand Challenge robots
may
become lost in a short time. MobileRobots Inc, which has worked since 1995
designing intelligent robotic bases from their core heartbeat systems to the
highest levels of autonomous navigation, demonstrated one of its new
capabilities for hours -- driving successfully outdoors with no GPS --
before military officials at the National Defense Industry Association in
San Antonio, TX last week. Today, it announced that it can now
autonomouslyre-map spaces, updating the map automatically on a regular basis so
that the
robot can adjust to changes in its environment.

MobileRobots Inc uses advanced techniques fusing multiple sensor readings so
that
robots combine information from lasers, cameras and GPS. Comparing this
multi-modal
picture of the world to its mapped information, MobileRobots can drive even near
buildings, in urban or rural canyons and through tunnels as well as follow
fences and plan GPS-based best-paths. Its patent-pending Dynamic Guidance
System (mDIGS) also enables it to drive intelligently through garages,
warehouses, airplane hangers and other rapidly changing spaces using vision
information from an omni-directional camera. Its re-mapping system functions
from
MobileRobots MobileEyes robot control GUI with or without mDIGS to update map
site data without losing goals, forbidden areas and other information embedded
in the map. Fleets of robots cooperate with each other using MobileRobots
Central Server software and MobileSIM simulator.

MobileRobots Inc manufactures its own autonomous bases for VARS to use in
security, remote viewing, visitor guidance and delivery applications. It
also supplies autonomous guidance systems for use in OEM robots.
MOBILEROBOTSinside technologies are used by factories in the auto and
steelindustries, as well as hospital and clean-room laboratories.
MOBILEROBOTSoutdoors,
intelligent guidance system using GPS, has been released for researchers and
is in testing for commercial applications. It was demonstrated at FPEDVI
near Quantico last August. Last week was the first showing of MobileRobots'
non-GPS driving to a military audience. MobileRobots Inc will be beta testing
its
re-mapping in a pharmaceutical warehouse in late April.

With two years remaining in its 12-year program to develop comprehensive
autonomous
navigation, the company has three major goals left to integrate into its
systems:
1) seamless automatic map swapping in the MobileEyes control GUI so that robots
can
move easily among building floors, between buildings and into separately mapped
outdoor spaces (Summer, '08); 2) a more sophisticated multi-level obstacle
avoidance that will reduce the number of expensive sensors required to safely
navigate complex environments (Winter, '09); and 3) improved road-follow
navigation for on-road vehicles (Spring, 09).

MobileRobots is a founding member of the Robotics Technology Consortium,
along with
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Carnegie Mellon, General Dynamics, Foster-Miller,
iRobot
and other leaders of the robotics industry. The company has sold over three
thousand robots worldwide and provides intelligent navigation platforms and
systems to OEMs and VARs in Canada and the US. Customers include: BAE, GM,
Microsoft, US Army and the US Navy.

MobileRobots Inc was founded in 1995 in association with Grinnell More,
later a
principal of iRobot. CTO, William Kennedy, PhD, its chief manufacturing
officer, Gary Fischer and other MobileRobots employees moved from More's
company or iRobot as well. CEO Jeanne Dietsch was partner with Pat McGovern of
IDG on a technology venture prior to helping found MobileRobots Inc.

MobileRobots runs its R&D, manufacturing and administrative operations
froma 25,000 square-foot facility in Amherst, NH, fifty miles northwest of
Boston. For more information about MobileRobots autonomous navigation systems,
see
www.MobileRobots.com or contact Donna Doran, pr@mobilerobots.com,
+1-603-881-7960.

Guidance with GPS, without GPS, in a fleet, all driven via MobileEyes GUI
command software.

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Contact:
Donna Doran
Email Contact
+1-603-881-7960

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