Inspiration for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, or DRC, comes in part from the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster following the tsunami of March 2011, program manager Gill Pratt says. "During the first 24 hours there were several opportunities for intervention to help make the disaster less severe," Pratt tells PM, "but unfortunately people could not go into that zone because the radiation was too high... So DARPA's question with the DRC is ?What advances in robotic technology can be made to improve our collective resilience during the first few days of a disaster?' "
DARPA aims to create those advancements through competition. The agency is giving teams only two years to pull off the construction and operation of robots that are more capable and more flexible than any built before. The machines will have to operate mostly on their own in areas where communication with human operators may be spotty or intermittent?perhaps only good enough to convey broad commands such as "drive that vehicle" or "remove this pile of rubble." DARPA calls this capability supervised autonomy, and it's a big challenge in itself that will require advances in artificial intelligence?even without DARPA's added requirement for extreme flexibility.
DARPA is still determining the specific tasks the robots will have to perform, but they are likely to include driving a vehicle, getting out of the vehicle to climb over rubble, opening a door, climbing a ladder, using power tools to break down a wall, other basic repair tasks. That means the robots will have to incorporate sophisticated planning capabilities as well as the ability to automatically balance and remain stable while traveling over a variety of surfaces, and most likely decide for themselves how to use dexterous appendages (like hands) to operate tools designed for humans. While DARPA stresses that the winning bots don't have to be humanoid, it seems probable that they will at least approximate human appearance, since they will have to operate in human-created environments and use our tools. Arms, legs, hands, and optical sensors spaced for 3D vision seem par for the course.
Seven already-selected teams on Track A, from Carnegie Mellon University, Virginia Tech, NASA, and elsewhere, are tasked with building the actual robots. Those came together at yesterday's meeting, from which the press was barred. There are also 11 Track B teams that will be working on software to run the robots. That includes groups from Lockheed Martin, the University of Kansas, RE2, and others. Teams in both tracks are receiving DARPA funding to complete their work.
And there's Track C of the DRC, which provides for open competition among teams from around the world that want to compete in creating software for driving a humanoid robot. If accepted, teams will have access to an open-source DRC Simulator being developed through the Open Source Robotics Foundation, or OSRF. The simulator is a virtual environment, still in beta testing, that will incorporate computer models of robots and sample environments in which they can operate. Team members will be able to log in to upload software to simulated robots, test code, and see how well the virtual bots can handle DARPA-assigned tasks.
The DRC Simulator builds on tools that have already been in development by OSRF, including its Robot Operating System and Gazebo simulator. "When everyone has access to good tools that handle the basics of programming a robot," OSRF CEO Brian Gerkey tells PM, "we'll have a much broader base of engineers inventing robot applications. And that's what we really need: more good ideas for what robots can do in our lives."
A DRC qualifying event in May 2013 will pit Track B and Track C teams head-to-head. A pared-down field will compete in a Virtual Robotics Challenge in June. Up to six winning teams will then be assigned their own Government Furnished Equipment (or GFE) robot, otherwise known as ATLAS. ATLAS is in development by Boston Dynamics, which is famous for developing BigDog, a four-legged robotic pack animal capable of scrambling after soldiers through just about any terrain with their gear.
ATLAS's predecessor robot, Pet-Proto, already displays a disturbingly human-like ability to clomp up and down stairs on two legs and climb over obstacles with the help of two armlike appendages. "ATLAS and Pet-Proto are quite different," Boston Dynamics founder and president Marc Raibert tells PM. ATLAS should be even more capable?for example, by incorporating hands. ATLAS also includes 28 hydraulically activated joints and a sensor array for a head that includes a laser range finder and 3D cameras. At 180 pounds and 69 inches tall, the machine is roughly the same size and weight as a man. Like its predecessor, however, it will rely on a tether for external power. It also runs hot, requiring cooling water to circulate through its body at the rate of 2 gallons per minute.
The winning Track B and Track C teams will each get up to $750,000 to continue their work, leading up to a physical challenge in which robots will have to perform real-world tasks in what DARPA terms an authentic disaster scenario. Up to eight top teams could win $1 million each in that challenge, which will put them in the running for a $2 million top prize to be awarded in a second physical challenge.
Now, if you're independently wealthy and feel like financing your own team, the challenge allows for a go-for-broke Track D that invites teams to build their own hardware and software for competition in the two physical challenges.
All of this promises to dramatically advance the state of the art in robotics. "The field of robotics has just scratched the surface so far," says Raibert. "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
Michael Belfiore is the author of The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs and is a frequent PM contributor.
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