Eight simple tasks the US military has asked a new generation of robots to perform
Team Aist-Nedo's HRP2+ robot was able to open a door at the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
Twenty-three international robotics teams competed over the weekend near Los Angeles. The event was sponsored by DARPA — the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Project Agency, the agency that helped bring us a little thing called the Internet.
The goal of the competition was to challenge teams to design robotic first responders, robots that can get past obstacles that simulate the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdown in in 2011 in Japan. “The thinking was that this is a place where robots can go where it’s too dangerous for humans, like a nuclear plant,” says BBC journalist Regan Morris, who checked out the event.
Cautious, perhaps clumsy, the Terminator-like rebots each had eight challenges:
— To drive a car about 50 yards and get out
— Walk over or clear any rubble in their way en route to a door
— Climb stars, walk through the door
— Turn off a valve as if it something dangerous that is leaking
— Drill a hole in a wall.
In addition there were two unplanned challenges for the robots: Pulling a lever, and pulling an electrical plug out and putting it back in.
Morris hoped the challenge showed robots can help out as first responders in real world applications. Critics say the Pentagon is more interested in creating ‘killer robots’ than in disaster clearance robots.
Not so, says Gill Pratt, director of DARPA's robotics challenge. ”I understand that worry from an emotional point of view, but if you think about it rationally and carefully, you realize that we already have weapons that are Incredibly efficient at hurting and killing people, and they're very inexpensive and they're very effective. On the other hand, these robots cost around $1 million dollars apiece, they can barely walk, they can turn a couple of valves, and the most important thing is they require a human supervisor on the other end of a communication link because they only have the intelligence of an animal with a brain stem not with brain.”
Still the same technology that can turn a pressure valve could possibly be deployed to handle an assault weapon, says Morris. “They wouldn't rule out that that's not a possibility in the future. When it comes to the Defence Department, who knows what's going on in DARPA? “She says DARPA is funding the development of these new robots (to the tune of 2 million dollars to the winners of the DARPA challenge) and it is for the good of humanity in this case as they are the robotic first responders of the future, “ but who knows what they could be used for in the future?”
The future may not be so far off. South Korea's team Kaist won top honors — completing all eight tasks in under 45 minutes. Morris says the No. 2 finisher, from IHMC Robotics in Florida, did a little dance after its run, thrusting its fists in the air. But then it tripped and collapsed on the awards podium.
Its possible that this newest generation of robots will save lives in future disasters, says Morris. “But for now, they have a ways to go before meeting the expectations of science fiction or the realities of a real disaster. “