IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2012 - 128

TURNING POINT

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Robotics Challenge
By Erico Guizzo

I

n this issue, Erico Guizzo (EG)
interviews Gill Pratt (GP) (Figure 1),
a program manager at the U.S.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Early this year,
Pratt unveiled the DARPA Robotics
Challenge, an ambitious program
aiming to revolutionize disasterresponse robots. The program is
offering tens of millions 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 with an
audacious competition with robots
driving trucks, breaking through
walls, and attempting to perform
repairs in a simulated industrialdisaster setting. The winner takes all:
a US$2 million cash prize. Guizzo
spoke with Pratt-a roboticist and
educator who coinvented the serieselastic actuator-about the goals of
the program and how it could change
robotics in a big way.

EG: DARPA funds lots of robotics
programs. What is the goal and
focus of this new effort?
GP: The program is really aimed at
developing human-robot teams to be
able to help in disaster response. Here,
the human is at a distance from the
robot and will supervise the robot to
do a number of tasks that are quite
challenging. And we think it will be
very exciting. It is important to note
that this is not just for a nuclear power
plant situation. The next disaster may
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2012.2206670
Date of publication: 10 September 2012

128

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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not be a nuclear plant. For
that reason, we want to
leverage the human tools
that are likely to be out
there. It is all about adaptability-what is the most
adaptable system that can
be used during that first
day or two of the disaster
when you have a chance to
reduce the scope of the
disaster by taking action.
That is what the challenge
is about.

EG:

Figure 1. Dr. Gill Pratt
joined DARPA as a
program manager in
January 2010. He
oversees several
DARPA programs in the
field of robotics. (Image
courtesy of DARPA.)

Is the program designed to
advance humanoid robot technology? Do robots entering the
challenge have to be humanlike
machines?
GP: The DARPA Robotics Challenge
is decidedly not exclusive to humanoid systems. The three big ideas here
are: first, we need robots that are
compatible with shared environments, even though the environments
are degraded; second, we need robots
that are compatible with human tools;
the third is compatibility with human
operators in two ways, one is that the
robot is easy to operate without particular training and second is that the
human operator can easily imagine
what the robot might do. For that to
be true, the robot needs to have a form
that is not too different from the
human form. But, I think that some
variation actually might work. For
instance, if it had more arms than we
have or if it had more legs than we
have, or if it had a mobility platform
that was different than legs and could
get around in the same environment
and use the same tools that we use,

SEPTEMBER 2012

that would be fine to do
those types of tasks. We
are not pushing a particular robot architecture or
type; rather we are saying
what the interface needs
to be like, both for the
operator and for the tools
and environment.

EG: The disaster response scenario you came
up involves robots driving trucks, walking through
rubble, crashing through walls, and
operating power tools (Figure 2).
Is it realistic to expect teams will
succeed?
GP: Some people have said, incorrectly, that we expected that teams
would not be able to complete the first
challenge, but that is actually not true.
[Editor's Note: The program will consist of two phases, each ending with a
competitive challenge. Phase 1 will
last 15 months from October 2012 to
December 2013. Phase 2 will last 12
months from January 2014 to December 2014.] The challenge will be
adjusted as we gain experience with
the teams over this first phase, before
the first live challenge in December
2013. What we are going to make sure
is that the live challenge is difficult but
not impossible. And then we expect
that in the second live challenge we
will be doing the same thing, and that
in fact we will show off skills and
performance that are better than what
we had before.

(continued on page 124)
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