RoboticsDisaster relief robots compete at DARPA Robotics Challenge

Twenty four teams from around the world have just competed in Pomona, California for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Robotics Challenge, which runs various rescue robot platforms through a vigorous series of tests to learn and develop better systems.

As the Los Angeles Times reports, the challenge has been three years in the making and is expected to be seen as the “robot Olympics.”

“We’re trying to literally save the world and save humanity,” said Dennis Hong, a member of a team of engineers competing on the behalf of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “But, we want to have some fun.”

Like many of the contestants, Hong and his team submitted a humanoid-shaped robot, called THOR-RD, which also comically sports a pink wig.

“Animal-inspired robots can each do one thing well — climb poles or perhaps squeeze into hard-to-reach places,” he said. “That’s useful in specific circumstances during a disaster, but not all of them. Robots need to be humanoid for disaster relief, because robots need to drive a car, need to climb steps.”

He noted that a team from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) entered a drastically different, non-humanoid design.

“If they fail, it means, oh, what I said was right,” he said. “And if they indeed do well, it means they’ve proven me wrong.”

The spirit of development drives much of the challenge, and DARPA’s high-risk, high-reward approach to contracting as an arm of the Department of Defense (DOD) is meant to encourage developers to take risks.

Much of the long-term planning and ideas for the challenge grew out of the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, which resulted from an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. At one point during that tragedy, employees at the plant needed to open steam valves to avert an explosion, but could not get to the appropriate site fast enough due to extremely high rates of radiation. That legacy, and the realization that robots could have performed those tasks and saved lives, guide much of the research which went into the developments of the robots which participated in the Challenge.

Because of this, DARPA has made the competition even harder for competing teams. The robots could not operate with power chords, meaning that heavy batteries had to be on the board. Also, there could not be safety pumpers or tools for bipedal robots, which still struggled with balance issues.

“In a real disaster, there are no ropes to hold you up. The robots have to drive a car to the door, but the hardest part of the ride is getting out of the vehicle without falling,” said Gill Pratt, program manager of the challenge.

Additionally, DARPA shut down the wireless communications periodically during the events, so that the robots had to work in without instruction, reflecting the unpredictable pitfalls that could occur during a rescue mission.

Team KAIST from South Korea took home the $2 million prize after completing all eight tasks on the course ahead of the other teams.