Dec 21
The Google-owned Japanese robotics company SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials by a wide margin. It scored 27 out of 32 points, beating its nearest competitor IHMC Robotics … Continue reading
Dec 21
After two days of competition, Tokyo’s team SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Miami. With 27 out of a possible 32 points in eight challenges, SCHAFT pulled out a decisive victory. IHMC Robotics (20 points), Tartan Rescue (18 points), MIT (16 points) and Robosimian (14 points) round out the top five. We can’t wait for the final competition to come in 2014.
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Dec 21
Gizmodo’s coverage of the DARPA Robotics Challenge continues with day two at the Homestead Speedway south of Miami. The weekend has arrived and the crowds are here with their kids, cheering on the bots.
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Dec 21
We’ve seen countless videos of ATLAS
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Dec 20
The DARPA Robotics Challenge, or DRC, kicked off today at the Homestead-Miami Speedway about 30 miles south of Miami. A total of sixteen teams from around the world are here to challenge each other today and tomorrow in timed trials, and to compete for funding from DARPA, the Pentagon’s mad science arm. A seventeenth team, from China, hit travel snags and hasn’t made it here yet.
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Dec 20
Today kicks off the two-day mechanolympics of the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials at Homestead Miami Speedway. With teams from around the world competing in eight tasks, only one will take home the purse. Just a few hours in—watch live here—it’s still any robot’s game. We’ve got your odds right here, so you can bet on the future.
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Dec 18
From 1983 to 1993 DARPA spent over $1 billion on a program called the Strategic Computing Initiative. The agency’s goal was to push the boundaries of computers, artificial intelligence, and robotics to build something that, in hindsight, looks strikingly similar to the dystopian future of the Terminator movies. They wanted to build Skynet.
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Dec 16
Carnegie Mellon CHIMP robot to participate in DARPA Robotics Challenge trials this month
Posted in: Today's ChiliCarnegie Mellon University has been working on its CHIMP robot that will participate in the DARPA Robotic Challenge for a long time. The first time we talked about the robot was in March of this year when CHIMP was first announced. The university has announced that CHIMP will be taking part in the DARPA Robotics […]
Dec 13
The DARPA Robotics Challenge is all about encouraging the development of humanoid robots that can complete the same tasks we humans do, but in more dangerous conditions – a robot that can get the job done when we don’t want to. When those participating in the challenge were announced last year, one entry really stood out. And today, NASA’s DRC robot actually exists. It’s called Valkyrie 1.
This robot looks a bit like Iron Man, but in white. It has a 1.9-meter-tall frame that weighs in at 125kg. That’s almost 6-feet-tall. Valkyrie 1 has 44 degrees of freedom, so it is very flexible. The arms alone have seven degrees of freedom and the legs six. Valkyrie 1 and the other entrants will have to perform tasks like climbing a ladder, driving a utility vehicle, and using tools. Therefore the design must be up to par.
Valkyrie 1 has cameras in its head, wrists, torso, and legs. This way the operator can get a view from almost any angle when controlling the robot. Its limbs are interchangeable, and most of the components can be removed in minutes, so this robot is easy to repair as well. You can see Valkyrie 1 in action in the clip below:
[via Geek]
Dec 13
Sikorsky as announced that it has been granted a contract by DARPA to develop phase 1 of the X-Plane program. The X-Plane to be designed under the contract is a vertical take off and landing experimental aircraft. The contract is worth $15 million to Sikorsky and will see the company begin development of a high […]
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