Software Allows Scientists Better Access To Expensive Microscopes And Telescopes Over Internet

Science Daily — Software under development at Ohio State University is helping scientists operate big-budget research instruments -- such as high-powered microscopes and telescopes -- over the Internet, more safely and efficiently than was possible before.

The need for such remote operation is growing, and it's driven by the costs of doing research, explained Prasad Calyam, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering at Ohio State. Calyam is a senior systems developer at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), where he and other researchers are developing the software in collaboration with materials scientists at Ohio State's Center for the Accelerated Maturation of Materials (CAMM).
Today, distant institutions often share the costs -- and also the use -- of expensive instruments. With the Internet, it's now possible for distant research partners to run their own experiments on shared instruments without leaving home.
But Internet traffic congestion can make remote operation slow, frustrating, and even dangerous.
"Communication delays can prevent remote operators from knowing exactly what is happening with an instrument at a particular moment, and that can lead to making the wrong decisions as a result," Calyam said.
When that happens, one wrong keystroke could spell disaster. Expensive physical components in the instrument could smash into one another. Repairing these damaged components can cost over $100,000 to fix. All because the remote video feed froze up, and the researcher couldn't see what he or she was doing.
Calyam and his colleagues began developing RICE -- short for Remote Instrumentation Collaboration Environment -- to prevent remote researchers from making such mistakes. It also helps them perform experiments more efficiently, regardless of network congestion.
At the IMMERSCOM conference in Verona, Italy, on October 11, 2007, Calyam described the first test of the software, which was conducted late last year at OSC with researchers from CAMM.
On the surface, RICE would look very familiar to anyone who's used Internet videoconferencing software, or even an Internet chat program. There's a window that lists the names of researchers who are logged in, and another window for text messaging. A third window shows a video feed of the object being studied, along with buttons to control the instrument. One primary user -- presumably, the lead researcher on an experiment -- can transfer control of the instrument from one remote researcher in one location to another.
For this study, the test subjects were researchers from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Ohio State. That department houses CAMM, which recently installed several of the world's most powerful electron microscopes with the idea of making them remotely operable.
The CAMM engineers and their students used RICE to operate a microscope from different locations -- first, directly at the microscope, then elsewhere inside the laboratory, then at another location inside the same building. Finally, they operated the microscope from two miles away at the OSC offices on Ohio State's west campus in Columbus. Each test utilized a different kind of network setup; the test at OSC was performed over the public Internet.
In each test, the CAMM engineers were able to operate their microscope without incident. While they experienced some delays in performance when using RICE over the Internet, they still reported a high level of satisfaction with the software.
Calyam was also pleased to note that the experiment at OSC didn't affect the network performance of the center's employees, despite the fact that the software's video feed requires 10-30 megabytes per second of bandwidth.
"The first question a system administrator in a campus environment has to ask before installing this kind of software is, 'If we use this in the laboratory, how will it affect all my other users in the building?'" Calyam said. "Now we know, if the lab has a well-designed network, RICE won't affect them -- they can go about business as usual."
RICE works so well because it relies on the economic principles of supply and demand to utilize network bandwidth. It's a unique way of understanding how network health affects end-user experience, and -- as it turns out -- it's a vitally important strategy for operating instruments remotely.
Special algorithms take control of the software when a user's commands -- in effect, the user's demands on the system -- outweigh the supply. In this case, the "supply" is bandwidth consumed by the video feeds from the instrument. For example, when Internet congestion has caused the video feed to freeze up, RICE blocks commands from the user, who may mistakenly think that the instrument hasn't moved, when it actually has.
He or she may even try to correct the mistake by pressing more buttons -- and may actually make the problem worse.
"It's just human nature -- when we hit a button, and nothing happens, we hit the button again," Calyam said. "We know from our previous studies that people using Internet software tend to click more buttons when the network is slow, and they also get less done.
"RICE notices when a user issues commands that are probably caused by network congestion, and it blocks those commands. In addition, it allows the user to tune their supply to cope with network congestion. In the end, the user is less frustrated, because they've gotten the result they wanted with fewer clicks and without worrying about potentially damaging the instrument."
OSC eventually plans to make the RICE software code publicly available. In the meantime, Calyam's team is continuing to test the software with other instruments in Ohio -- some located at the Department of Chemistry at Ohio State, the Electron Microscopy Facility at Miami University, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Ohio University.
The need for better software for remote operation is growing, Calyam said. The National Science Foundation recently began encouraging the use of remote operation on the major instruments that it funds. And some laboratories are seeking to recoup their investment in expensive instruments by allowing outside researchers to rent the use of instruments and related analytic tools over the Internet, for a fee.
Calyam's co-investigators on the study included Nathan Howes, an undergraduate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Abdul Kalash and Mark Haffner, both graduate students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Numerous Ohio State faculty members contributed to the project (some of whom also have appointments at OSC), including: Calyam's advisor, Eylem Ekici, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering; Ashok Krishnamurthy, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, associate professor of speech and hearing, and Director of Research and Scientific Development at OSC; Steven Gordon, professor of city and regional planning and Director of Education and User Support at OSC; and Dong Xuan, associate professor of computer science and engineering.
At CAMM, Peter Collins, a senior research associate, Robert Williams, a graduate research associate, and Daniel Huber, a student research assistant, aided in the study. CAMM is directed by Hamish Fraser, Ohio Regents Eminent Scholar and professor of materials science and engineering.
"CAMM provided feature sets, design goals, and also enabled pilot deployment of the software," Calyam said. "Without CAMM, this project would not have existed."
This work was funded by the Ohio Board of Regents and Ohio State's CAMM-VIM (CAMM Visualization, Instrumentation and Modeling) program.

Roboticists to ride wave of power, chip and sensor improvements

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--The Boston area has become a leading robotics hub, with a larger cluster of related companies than any other area in the U.S., according to a group of panelists assembled for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Enterprise Forum on Robotics Wednesday night.

The Stata Center, where the MIT Enterprise Forum on Robotics was held Wednesday night, houses MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL).(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET News.com)
The group, which consisted of executives from ABB Robotics, Brooks Automation, iRobot, Kiva Systems, North End Technologies and Vecna Technologies, said robotics companies are drawn to the university-rich New England area because of their unique need for highly educated employees from a multitude of disciplines.
While there are some great robots, the panelists said, they are not yet user-friendly enough to be viable as consumer products. Part of that is due to a lack of quality designed interfaces, something that will come from hiring people in disciplines other than just software and engineering.
"Here's a little thing for you engineers out there. Engineers make the suckiest interfaces ever," said Rod Brooks, the director of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and the chief technology officer of iRobot.
After field soldiers had trouble figuring out how to control the PackBots iRobot initially made for the military, one iRobot engineer suggested that the robots needed better trained people to work them, not 19-year-old soldiers, according to Brooks.
"Now we ship (PackBots) with a game controller and have instant usage. Know your market user," he said.

iRobot's PackBot with a video game style-controller.(Credit: iRobot)
Robotics is an interdisciplinary industry, but also one that's wide open to new methods and business models, according to Debra Theobald, chief executive officer of Vecna Instustries, the maker of the BEAR (Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot).
Some robotics companies, like Vecna, are beginning to follow the software company model and sell services as well as products. Vecna , for example, customizes and implements the open-source JAUS robotic platform to fit the specific needs of customers. (Note: We've fixed that JAUS reference from an earlier misspelling.)
Since robotics is such an interdisciplinary field, its enhancement will largely be dependent on the breakthroughs in other tech industries. Specifically, the panelists said, it comes down to better sensors, renewable or rechargeable power sources and better real-time computational power.
Storage is no longer an issue, as the iPod has shown. Improved computational power will come as software developers learn to better capitalize on quad-core chips through parallel computing. Sensors are a technology that will have to come down in cost, as well as improve in performance in order for robots to improve.
"I was at DARPA. I saw Stanley. While that's very exciting what they don't tell you is that they made sure it would win," said Tom Ryden, CEO of North End Industries, who is also a former iRobot employee.
"It was a beautiful sunny day and there was no wind. What would have happened if it was raining? That car wouldn't have made it ten feet. Sensors are really the area that need a lot of improvement...We need sensors that can provide instant feedback and at an affordable cost," he said.

The BEAR (Battlefield Extraction and Retrieval Robot) from Vecna Technologies.(Credit: Candace Lombardi/CNET News.com)
Nintendo is one example of a non-robotic company helping the robotic industry with its technology developments. Accelerometers such as those used in the Wii game controller have come down in price since their introduction into such a high volume product.
"We just need to be the benefactors of other industries that are going out and pushing the limits," said Theobald.
"Power is an issue, whether it's making renewable or rechargeable, that will be driven by other technologies. We see battery power improving in our computers and communication devices," she said.
With these improvements already on the way, and an anticipated need for more automation in manufacturing, robotics will go through a revolution similar to the one that took place with software, communications and the Internet. And it will happen just as the world begins to need more robots.
With Chinese wages growing by as much as 35 percent per year within the last few years in some regions and an expected growth in its older population, China will not be the cheap labor haven it is right now for U.S. companies 50 years from now, said Brooks.
"People think it may jump to Africa, but there are a lot of structural needs there, so I think it's going to go to robotics," he said.