Military Robot 2013 DARPA LS3 Automatically Follows Soldiers BigDog Beach'n Notes for IEEEE paper DARPA Robotics Challenge trials to be held December 20-21 The development of robots capable of operating in a melange of disarray and hazards will allow relief agencies to reduce the danger to disaster victims and first responders alike. This is the goal of DARPA's multi-year Robotics Challenge, which in December will pit a variety of robots and software against a series of eight real-world tasks that might be encountered in actual disaster situations. The DARPA Robotics Challenge is aimed at developing a robot that can work with humans at disaster sites, combining their strengths to overcome their weaknesses. While DARPA's Track A teams are developing their own robots as well as the software to attempt DARPA's challenges, Track B/C teams have been supplied with a Boston Dynamics ATLAS humanoid robot for which they will develop disaster-busting software. The ATLAS humanoid robot is 74 in (188 cm) in height, 30 in (76 cm) from shoulder to shoulder, 22 in (56 cm) thick at the chest, and weighs 330 lb (150 kg) with its hydraulic power controller.
Start Your Mad Science: DARPA's Humanoid Robot Challenge DARPA's latest challenge kicked off yesterday at the agency's conference center in Arlington, Va. The Pentagon research division wants semiautonomous robots that can perform human chores such as driving vehicles, letting themselves into buildings, and repairing equipment, with the stated purpose of creating bots that could help in disaster-response efforts. Inspiration for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, or DRC, comes in part from the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster following the tsunami of March 2011, program manager Gill Pratt says. "During the first 24 hours there were several opportunities for intervention to help make the disaster less severe," Pratt tells PM, "but unfortunately people could not go into that zone because the radiation was too high... DARPA aims to create those advancements through competition. Seven already-selected teams on Track A, from Carnegie Mellon University, Virginia Tech, NASA, and elsewhere, are tasked with building the actual robots.