Cyborg Olympics
- By JR Fisher
- Jun 15, 2014
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Cyborg Olympics
Get ready for the Olympics to go robotic
Before athletes from around the world gather for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, 17 robotics teams will compete for glory this week in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials.
The competition will take place Friday and Saturday (Dec. 20-21) at the Homestead Miami Speedway in Homestead, Fla. The contest, designed to advance the field of robot technology, will test the capabilities of robotic creations from teams hailing from five different countries.
DARPA is the branch of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for experimenting with and developing new technologies for the military. The Robotics Challenge aims to foster the development of robots that could someday work alongside humans in the aftermath of disasters or emergencies, according to DARPA officials.
The rules of the game
This week's trials will consist of eight physical tasks that test the robots' perception, autonomous decision-making skills, mobility, strength and dexterity. Some of the tasks include climbing a ladder; navigating across different types of tricky, uneven terrain, closing a series of valves, and driving a vehicle through a marked course.
The performance of the robots will help DARPA evaluate the current state of robotics, and will also determine which teams go on to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals in 2014. There, the qualifying teams and their robots will compete to win a $2 million grand prize, DARPA officials said.
DARPA's robotics program began with more than 100 participating teams, Pratt told reporters in a news briefing earlier this month. In June, a simulated virtual challenge was held to narrow the field for the Florida trials. DARPA provided financial support to 13 of the teams that will compete this week, but an additional four teams are entering the competition with robots and software systems that were built entirely with their own funds.
The competing teams represent a diverse range of organizations and industries, including universities, software firms, small businesses and even two separate groups from NASA.
For a good cause
The DARPA Robotics Challenge was created largely in response to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown, in which a crippled Japanese nuclear plant leaked 300 tons of radioactive water into the ground following a devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck the region.
During the first 24 hours there, if robots had been able to go into the reactor buildings and vent the built-up gas that was accumulating inside the reactors, those explosions might have been prevented, and the disaster might not have been as severe.
Present state
For the most part, the types of robots that are already widely used are ones that are stationary, or carry out clearly defined and repetitive tasks, such as robots in car manufacturing plants. Other robots that are used in the military, for example, have limited autonomous operations, and largely rely on human handlers to control their movements and decision-making.
Where they are right now, robots are roughly at the same level of dexterity and mobility of a 1-year-old child. They fall down, they drop things out of their hands all the time — in general, they need to try things many times to get them right.
But the Robotics Challenge could change that!