DARPA invests in vision-guided robots.
DARPA asks Boston Dynamics to build enhanced version of legged infantry-support robot. DARPA's Pack Mule Robot Plays Follow the Leader. DARPA LS3: This robot can follow the leader. Applied Robotics: How Robots Could Change Life - DARPA Robotics Challenge For Disaster Aid : Tech. By Keerthi Chandrashekar (staff@latinospost.com) | First Posted: Dec 04, 2012 12:00 PM EST The Atlas Humanoid Robot from Boston Dynamics (Photo : DARPA/Boston Dynamics) The recent Hurricane Sandy debacle has brought the natural disaster issue back to the forefront, and in light of its devastating wake, it's worth taking a look into the future to see how such events might be dealt with.
Enter DARPA's Robotics Challenge (DRC), in which DARPA is calling on creative minds to help design robots that will be able to respond to the needs of victims and aid in relief efforts following the wake of disasters such as Sandy. DARPA’s Pet-Proto Robot In this video, the Pet-Proto, a predecessor to DARPA‘s Atlas robot, is confronted with obstacles similar to those robots might face in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).
To maneuver over and around the obstacles, the robot exercises capabilities including autonomous decision-making, dismounted mobility and dexterity. The DARPA Robotics Challenge will test these and other capabilities in a series of tasks that will simulate conditions in a dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environment. Teams participating in Tracks B and C of the DRC will compete for access to a modified version of the Atlas robot for use in the 2013 and 2014 live disaster-response challenge events.
Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense of this website or the information, products or services contained therein. You Should Be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence. I, for one, do not welcome our new robot overlords.
Let me elaborate. Writing about Artificial Intelligence is a challenge. By and large, there are two directions to take when discussing the subject: focus on the truly remarkable achievements of the technology or dwell on the dangers of what could happen if machines reach a level of Sentient AI, in which self-aware machines reach human level intelligence). This dichotomy irritates me. I don’t want to have to choose sides. Not to shock you with my mad math skills, but 2023 is 10 years away. In all of my research, I cannot find a definitive answer to the following question: How we can ensure humans will be able to control AI once it achieves human-level intelligence? How we can ensure humans will be able to control AI once it achieves human-level intelligence?
So, yes, I have control issues. It’s not that robots are evil, per se. Who is deciding when a target should be engaged? DailyDirt: Robots For Farming. Watch This Robotic Dog Throw Cinder Blocks With Its Head. Updated, 5:23 p.m.
Flesh-and-blood dogs merely fetch. The robotic pooch that Darpa funded can throw. Boston Dynamics’ BigDog started life as a headless four-legged robot capable of hauling soldiers’ gear along rough and uneven terrain. The BigDog’s upgrades and follow-on robots are expanding the boundaries of robotic motion, initially with cash from Darpa’s Tactical Technology Office. Its quadruped packmate the Cheetah can outrun Usain Bolt.
But the BigDog has some new tricks: like, um, throwing a cinderblock, as shown in the video above that Boston Dynamics released Thursday. Whereas once the BigDog disturbingly lacked anything topping off its torso, Boston Dynamics has attached a fifth appendage where a humanoid robot’s head should be. This is a new frontier for the BigDog. Update, 5:23 p.m.: I’ve changed the headline, since Darpa didn’t provide the add-on for the BigDog to throw anything. DARPA BigDog Robot Throws Cinder Blocks, Proves It's Boss. Robots are everywhere.
In our cars, our factories and our homes. They're also running up the sides of steep hills and completely mastering tough terrain. At least that was BigDog's signature move — until now. The Boston Dynamics robot finally has an arm and it's using it to toss cinder blocks clear across the room. Placed where the "dog's" head might normally be, the articulated appendage is being used right now to demonstrate how the robot can use its whole body to throw heavy objects, rather like a champion shot putter might throw a 10-pound ball 75 feet across a field. BigDog is actually a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project, and the long-term goal is to create a robot that moves as well as a human or animal across difficult terrain.
About the size of a small mule or very big dog, BigDog weighs 240 pounds and uses a host of servos and sensors to dance its way across the ground at up to 4 miles per hour. BigDog can now throw shit like it's nobody's business. Yep, I agree.
This isn't merely a test of the throwing ability. It's really a test of the dynamic stability functions. Can it though heavy objects while in motion? That's the real question being examined here.