Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
RoboSimian, an ape-like robot designed by the boffins at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is set to square off against up to 18 other mechanical competitors next June as part of the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).
The DARPA Robotics Challenge, created by the defense research group following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant accident in Japan, tasked some of the foremost robotics experts in the country to develop machines capable of performing disaster response-related tasks.
Unlike most robots, RoboSimian, which was named a finalist in January 2014, was built with four legs to increase its maneuverability over rough terrain. The robot finished fifth overall in a December 2013 challenge in which it and its competitors had to complete tasks such as opening doors and climbing ladders to measure if they could effectively aid rescue workers.
RoboSimian is headless but is covered with seven cameras which function as its eyes, CNN.com reported earlier this week. Instead of featuring a humanoid design, it features four identical limbs that double as both arms and legs, as well as wheels that allow it to coast on smooth terrain.
JPL selected RoboSimian as its final entry into the challenge, but that was not a given a month ago, according to officials at the laboratory. A second robot named Surrogate, which had been designed out of RoboSimian’s extra limbs in early 2014, was also being considered as the lab’s entry into the competition’s final stage.
Unlike the more ape-like RoboSimian, Surrogate was designed more like a human. It had an upright spine, two arms and a head. It stood 4.5 feet tall and weighed about 200 pound, had a flexible spine for addition manipulation capabilities and specialized in handling objects.
However, Surrogate moves on tracks, rendering it unable to take stairs or climb a latter. Since RoboSimian is better suited for travelling over complicated terrain, and is capable of climbing, the less-humanoid robot got the nod and was chosen to represent JPL at the DRC finals.
RoboSimian is slower than many of the other robots it will be squaring off against. CNN said that JPL’s Robotic Vehicles and Manipulators Group is working to improve its walking speed, but supervisor Brett Kennedy noted that its methodical speed was intentional.
“It is intentionally the tortoise relative to the other hares in the competition,” he explained. “We feel that a very stable and deliberate approach suites our technical strengths and provides a model for one vital element of the ‘ecosystem’ of robots that we expect to be deployed to disaster scenarios in the future.”
The software used to power RoboSimian was influenced by programs used to control the Mars rovers, and is designed to let robots work as autonomously as possible when it loses contact with human operators. They also worked to create a “professional” looking design instead or one that was “threatening or overly cute,” Kennedy said. “Basically, we wanted the perceptual equivalent of a St. Bernard.”
On June 5 and 6, that St. Bernard will travel to the Fairplex in Pomona, California for the DRC Finals. There, it and the other robots will attempt to complete a circuit of consecutive physical tasks with degraded communications between the robots and their operators, DARPA explained. The team that emerges victorious will be presented with a $2 million prize.
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