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Official Details For the DARPA Robotics Challenge

Posted by Soulskill on from the build-androids-that-do-not-kill-all-humans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The DARPA Robotics Challenge is offering tens of million of dollars in funding to teams from anywhere in the world to build robots capable of performing complex mobility and manipulation tasks such as walking over rubble and operating power tools. It all will culminate in an audacious competition with robots driving trucks, breaking through walls, and attempting to perform repairs in a simulated industrial-disaster setting. The winner takes all: a $2 million cash prize."

9 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's it? by jandrese · · Score: 3, Insightful

    $2 million gets added to your R&D budget on this adventurous robotics project that you can then sell to governments all over the world (or at least the US, since this is DARPA).

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  2. Immenant Disaster... by Missing.Matter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is classic DARPA... while these grand challenges are good for focusing research initiatives, they tend to ask for much more than the field can offer in a reasonable amount of time given the funds. Look at the first grand challenge: not a single team finished the race, and even the best team from the best school with the most funding only finished 12km of the proposed 240km course.

    It was an utter embarrassment. Only after they relaxed the requirements in 2005 of the competition to more accurately reflect what was humanly (or more aptly roboticly) possible at the time was the competition a success.

    Now they're expecting a full-on humanoid that can drive a car, bust down walls, move rubble, operate tools, all in unstructured environments? Look at the DARPA ARM grand challenge, where the state of the art could barely do these kinds of manipulations in a controlled well-lit laboratory.

    On the other hand, I suppose if they're allowing teleoperation/assisted autonomy that makes things a lot easier. I guess I just don't want a repeat of the collective embarrassment of the robotics community that happened in 2004.

    1. Re:Immenant Disaster... by one_who_uses_unix · · Score: 2

      RTFM - the robot does not have to be humanoid, it simply needs to be compatible with human tools.

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      KK4SFV
    2. Re:Immenant Disaster... by Missing.Matter · · Score: 2

      Did you RTFA? The competition will involve much more than that: it needs to drive a vehicle, including entering it, using all the controls as-is, and exiting the vehicle; it needs to climb ladders and traverse grated catwalks; it needs to use tools made specifically for humans; it needs to traverse several types of terrain, including moving over rubble and then move said rubble.... exactly what kind of robot would you propose that can do all that?

      If it is not a humanoid it is going to be highly engineered for this specific competition which defeats the purpose of a grand challenge.

    3. Re:Immenant Disaster... by ciantic · · Score: 4, Interesting

      From the IEEE-Article: "What’s more, the early reports incorrectly asserted that, because the challenge seems so difficult, teams were not expected to succeed the first time around. This is not the case, Pratt said. 'The challenge will be adjusted as we get experience with the teams over this first phase,' he said. 'What we’re going to make sure is that the challenge is difficult but not impossible.'"

    4. Re:Immenant Disaster... by savuporo · · Score: 2

      http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hrp+promet
      http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dlr+justin

      The ask is not unreasonable at all. Just requires focus, and investment. Prizes generally generate much more research dollars put into the thing than the prize value, so it's a super good investment.

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  3. Re:That's it? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

    Hell, we don't need the government for adventurous, useless robotic machines.

    Purdue University runs a contest every year.

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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  4. Does the robot that breaks through walls... by simonbp · · Score: 2

    ...have to yell "OH YEAH"! and be red...

  5. Re:DARPA: Precipitating tomorrow's dystopia today. by Tommy+Bologna · · Score: 2

    The internet, where anonymity amplifies the Dunning–Kruger effect.