Two NASA-built robots — one of them ape-inspired — have been selected to compete against other droids in a grueling challenge later this year
The United States military has been envisioning a future in which robots could replace humans as responders in disaster zones. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, is trying to push that prospect closer to reality through its Robotics Challenge.
In December, DARPA will hold the first physical trials of the competition at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida, where teams will have to navigate their high-tech robots through a rigorous obstacle course. According to some of the task descriptions released by DARPA last week, the robots will drive around roadblocks, bound over rugged terrain, climb up ladders, break down walls and connect a fire hose to a valve. [Teams Prep for DARPA Robot Challenge (Video)]
Seven more teams — including a group from JPL and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) — are being given use of Boston Dynamics' humanoid Atlas robot to compete in the trials.
"Atlas is one of the most advanced humanoid robots ever built, but is essentially a physical shell for the software brains and nerves that the teams will continue to develop and refine," DARPA officials wrote in a press release last week.
The seven teams won the chance to use Atlas — which stands more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and weighs 330 pounds (150 kilograms) — by passing DARPA's Virtual Robotics Challenge in June. In that simulated competition, teams had to navigate a virtual Atlas robot through the obstacles of a video game-like setting.
As video of the JPL/UCSB strategy shows, some groups devised rather creative ways of getting around, like crab-walking, to avoid falling in the virtual environment.
The DARPA Robotics Challenge will take place Dec. 20-21.
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