Modern Living: Sears, Robot & Co.

• Share

During a trial run, the mailboy missed a turn and went crashing through a men's room door. Now he has a regular office job—delivering and picking up letters on the 49th floor of Chicago's 110-story Sears Tower—and should do much better. He will probably never bump into anyone or anything, never pause for idle chatter or flirtation, or stop for more than 42 seconds at any one desk —indeed, never veer from any of his appointed rounds. If his fellow Sears employees find this paragon irritatingly inhuman, they can be excused. For the methodical new mailboy is a robot.

Beeping Sound. The dream mailboy is a completely automated cart with 20 mail compartments. It runs on four rubber wheels and is driven by a battery-powered electric motor. Electrical sensors in the cart pick up low-frequency radio signals from wires that are strung under the carpets along the desired route. Following their path, the 500-lb. robot stops when its photoelectric sensing system picks up signal lights bounced off reflective tiles strategically placed on corridor walls at knee level.

Wherever a stop is out of a secretary's line of sight, the robot sounds a chime or blinks a light to attract her attention.

As it wends its way around the floor at about one mile per hour, the mailboy emits a soft beeping sound and a low-intensity blue light to alert unwary humans. If these warnings are ignored, infra-red sensors inform the robot when it is four inches away from a leg or a misplaced piece of furniture, and it comes to a stop after moving only another inch.

When the obstacle is removed, the mailboy immediately resumes its travels.

The manufacturer of this mechanical wizard, Detroit's Jervis B. Webb Co., has had long experience making such automatons. One device, designed for carting material around trade shows and conventions, actually says "Pardon me" (in a recorded male voice). Webb's most sophisticated installation is at Detroit's 650-bed Harper-Webber Hospital. There, 70 automated, self-propelled carts recently began doing everything from delivering meals and surgical equipment to carrying off dirty linens and wastes. To prevent the spread of germs from one area of the hospital to another, the carts are programmed to return directly to an automatic sterilizing "carwash" after each delivery or pickup. The automated orderlies can electronically signal the hospital's elevators and ride up and down by themselves.