There are literally thousands of iRobot Packbots deployed around the world in everything from military operations to search and rescue and police incident investigation. Controlling these $100,000-plus robots takes a lot of patience and training, but that’s all about to change.

iRobot’s new uPoint Multi-Robot Control System (or uPoint MRC) puts all the controls for iRobot’s line of defense and security robots in one Android tablet interface.

It’s so easy to use anyone can do it – even this reporter.

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Originally, each iRobot security and defense robot had its own hardware-based control system, which usually included a physical joystick, a small screen, and a variety of separate controls for features such as an arm, grabber and sensors. Each controller would grow ever more complicated as iRobot and its customers added more and more specialized sensors, all of which might change the control configurations. As one iRobot executive put it, even well trained operators would need five to 10 minutes to familiarize themselves with the controls each time they used them.

iRobot uPoint interface Image: iRobot

uPoint MRC creates a unified radio network (WiFi, 4G or super lower frequency, depending on the job) and combines all the controls into one touch-based interface. The free Android app shows you the robot’s view through its on-board cameras and lets you tap, drag and drop to steer, move and control.

“Success as a robot operator during high-stress, critical-operations depends on precise and reliable control, so the interface needs to be intuitive," said Frank Wilson, senior vice president and general manager of iRobot's Defense & Security business unit.

Everything about the interface is simplified. I watched as the iRobot exec demonstrated all the key capabilities and then he handed me the tablet. I was able to drag my finger on the screen to where I wanted the Packbot robot to go, see a yellow predictive path on screen and then watch the robot drive along it. I tapped an onscreen button to change speeds (it could go quite fast), and when I wanted to pick up a bottle, was able to virtually grab the arm and move it into position, while the robot mimicked my actions in the real world. It was all so obvious and easy.

To switch robots, I tapped on the Assets button and took control of the much smaller iRobot First Look (also known as a throwbot). Once again, driving it around was easy. When I wasn’t pointing and dragging to control the robot, I used Automatic Mode, which simply let me select a destination point, which the robot would immediately head to. These robots do not, for now, have collision avoidance detection, so I had to be careful not to send any of the robots into a wall. Now that it’s radically simplified the controls, iRobot may add object detection to future robots.

iRobot uPoint and Packbot Image: Mashable, Lance Ulanoff

The interface also includes a real-time 3D robot avatar that shows exactly how the robot is positioned and which way it’s pointed. This is critical for situations where the robot operator is guiding the robot blind, say, into a mine or under collapsed rubble.

iRobot told me that all the robots are not only on the same network, they create a self-healing mesh network. If there’s a weak signal between the robot and the central radio hub, known as the uPoint Radio, one robot can, for example, act as a signal repeater.

That radio, by the way will also work to find the best possible and least crowded communication frequency. When Packbot was tasked with investigative work at the scene of the Boston Bombing, it struggled because the communication frequency was overcrowded. iRobot execs say that won’t happen with the uPoint Radio.

Available in 2015, uPoint MRC will come free with any of the iRobot defense and security robots. While the software is for Android, there is what iRobot calls a cloud-based observer mode that’s accessible via any smartphone or tablet, including iOS devices. Additionally, all data collected by the robots is instantaneously sent to a secure cloud where third parties can remotely participate in, for instance, an investigation.