Meet 2 robots facing off in DARPA challengeJuly 13, 2013
Last week, the seven teams that passed through a critical early stage in DARPA's $2 million Robotics Challenge met their newest teammate, Atlas.
The 6-foot-2, 330-pound machine is one of the most advanced robots ever to stand on two legs. It's also equipped with two arms, two interchangeable sets of hands, 28 individual joints and a head packed with sophisticated sensors.
The aim of the latest Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contest is to advance the ability of robots to aid in disaster response.
"What we need to do now is move beyond the state of the art," said Gill Pratt, program manager at DARPA, which is a research division of the Department of Defense.
The challenge kicked off last month with a virtual competition, where contestants used software to steer simulated robots through disaster scenarios like using water to cool spent fuel rods in a nuclear power plant. Now that the winners of that competition have their own physical robots, they'll meet six additional teams in subsequent real-world rounds this and next December.
Robots have already been put to work in the aftermath of actual disasters, including the Fukushima nuclear accident and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But the machines are limited in their ability to navigate irregular terrain, move around heavy objects and stay connected in extreme conditions.
As a humanoid robot, one that gets around on two legs, Atlas is an ideal fit for its disaster recovery mission. Wheels quickly fail in terrain cluttered with wreckage or in the face of stepping up stairs or into vehicles.
In particularly challenging situations, Atlas can climb using its hands and feet. Its hands are articulated and sensate - meaning it has flexible joints and can perceive what it touches. That allows it to turn a car key, use tools and move around debris.
Boston Dynamic's predecessor to Atlas, known as Petman, was initially developed to test protective clothing. Designers made several modifications after being selected by DARPA for the competition.
"Since they wanted a robot that could operate in the places that humans normally operate and using specialized tools designed for humans, it was natural to consider using a robot that is the rough size and shape of a person," Marc Raibert, chief technology officer of Boston Dynamics, said in an e-mail.
The 13 teams moving into the next round come from across the United States and from several other countries. The only California entry comes from a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, UC Santa Barbara and Stanford, which joined forces after the virtual round to work on a four-limbed robot known as RoboSimian. Researchers at JPL began developing the robot for the competition in October.
It was designed to be relatively cheap, easy to produce and simple to repair in the field, with identical limbs and joints, said Brett Kennedy, supervisor of the robotic vehicles and manipulators group at the lab in Pasadena.
The other critical design consideration was making it "operationally flexible."
"You never know what you'll run into, so because everything is generalized, it makes it a little more adaptable to a reasonable level across a lot of different situations," Kennedy said. "It's not optimized for driving a vehicle or climbing a ladder," but it can do all those things and more.
Hands and feet
Kennedy said it's an example of "bioinspiration" rather than "biomimicry," as they borrowed only what was most advantageous from the blueprints of Mother Nature.
In this case, the higher primates referenced in the Simian part of the name can walk on flat ground, climb trees or swing across branches, using their feet and hands almost interchangeably.
RoboSimian has "a hand on every limb that's good for mobility and manipulation," Kennedy said.
As a federally funded research and development center, it's unclear whether JPL could directly accept any part of the $2 million prize. But like many in the competition, Kennedy said it's less about the cash and more about the opportunity to push forward the state of robotics.