00100	                 RESEARCH APPLIED TO NATIONAL NEEDS
00200	
00300	
00400	
00500		The  National  Science  Foundation  has established a program
00600	called RANN (Research Applied to National Needs) the idea of which is
00700	to  orient  science  to getting results that meet national needs.  In
00800	the  current  climate  of  opinion,  these  needs  are  regarded   as
00900	eliminating pollution, eliminating poverty, improving education, etc.
01000	A recent article in Science spells this  out  a  bit  and  gives  the
01100	current political situation.
01200	
01300		Ever  since  the AI Project made its statement in May 1970, I
01400	have been thinking about how we  might  do  some  applied  work  with
01500	civilian goals.  This has been difficult for two reasons:  First, our
01600	work is, in the main, not ready to be  applied.   Second,  it  seemed
01700	difficult to get financial support.
01800	
01900		I  have  finally  reached the conclusion that if we are to do
02000	civilian applied work, we must be prepared to venture  far  from  our
02100	habitual  activities  and  work  with people with whom we are not yet
02200	acquainted.  I would like to start a discussion in the project  aimed
02300	at getting ideas about what we might undertake and to start it off, I
02400	shall mention some possible projects:
02500	
02600		1. Computer-controlled or more  generally  remote  controlled
02700	tunneling.
02800		The proposal is  to  control  tunneling  machinery  from  the
02900	surface using television and other sensors underground. The object is
03000	that  there  should  be  no  people  in  the  tunnel  during   normal
03100	operations.   While  the  main  work of tunneling is done by machines
03200	now, probably there are auxiliary activities now  done  manually,  so
03300	some new machines and ways of using them would have to be developed.
03400	
03500		Tunneling  is  dangerous  (17  people  were  just  killed  in
03600	Southern California), a large part of the expense goes  into  keeping
03700	the environment habitable by unprotected humans with minimal success,
03800	tunneling is often done under pressure in which  case  much  time  is
03900	lost  coming  in  and out of pressure, tunnels are big enough jobs so
04000	that some ponderousness in set-up is tolerable, and  money  might  be
04100	saved and tunnels might be completed faster.
04200	
04300		If we undertook this, we would have to work with construction
04400	machinery makers the mechanical and civil engineers at Stanford,  and
04500	a  construction firm.  The idea would be to make experimental tunnels
04600	at first rather than to introduce new methods into an  existing  job.
04700	(An  experimental  tunnel would be unprecedented for the construction
04800	industry which only does research in connection with paying projects.
04900	
05000		Our contribution  would  be  in  the  areas  of  programming,
05100	interfacing,  human  engineering,  making the machinery controllable,
05200	and getting away from habits of the construction industry.
05300	
05400		The system envisaged would include the following:
05500	
05600		1.  A control room full of displays including direct  TV  and
05700	also  computer  output.   The  computer  might  be  remote.   In  the
05800	experimental set-up, it could be our PDP-10.
05900	
06000		2. People would go into the tunnel rarely and perhaps only in
06100	protective suits with breathing apparatus.