IEEE Spectrum January, 2014 - 54

the ChaLLenGe Is ON
The robots competing in the DarPa
robotics Challenge face eight complex
tasks based on a disaster-response
scenario. The tasks are designed to test
perception, dexterity, endurance, and
other capabilities. The team whose robot
scores the most points wins us $2 million.

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1. DriVe a VeHiCle

5. CliMb a laDDer

Robots must drive a utility
vehicle across a 76-meter
obstacle-laden track.

Robots must climb a narrow
industrial-type ladder with a
60-degree incline.

2. TraVel DisMounTeD

6. breaK THrougH a Wall

Next, robots need to traverse a
rough-terrain course covered
with tripping hazards.

Using power tools-and their
own hands-robots have to
break panels of drywall.

3. reMoVe Debris

7. Close ValVes

This task requires robots to
clear lumber and pipes that are
blocking an entryway.

Robots need to locate and
close different kinds of valves
on a wall and a table.

4. oPen Doors

8. ConneCT a Fire Hose

Robots face a push door, a pull
door, and a door with a selfclosing hinge.

Finally, robots must pick up
a fire hose, unspool it, and
connect it to a fire hydrant.

jan 2014

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north american

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SPectrUm.ieee.orG

requires that the machines be
able to exercise a great deal of
autonomy, performing tasks
with minimum supervision.
That's a ridiculously
ambitious goal. To put things
into perspective, consider
today's most advanced
robots. Some, like Honda's
Asimo and South Korea's
Hubo, can walk and even run.
Others, including NASA's
Robonaut and Germany's
Rollin' Justin, can grasp
and use tools. And PR2,
developed by the Silicon
Valley lab Willow Garage, can
map its environment, drive
around, and handle objects.
A host of tracked vehicles,
like iRobot's PackBot, used to
disarm bombs, can negotiate
rough terrain and perform
manipulations. But a robot
that can do all that while
operating in a deteriorated
environment with limited
access to communication and
power, as DARPA is aiming
for, is unheard of. That goal
could easily take a decade or
two, but the sponsors of the
DRC want to show significant
progress in just two years.
As Dennis Hong, a
roboticist at Virginia
Tech, put it, the pace has
been "insane." His team is
building a humanoid called
THOR (Tactical Hazardous
Operations Robot), powered
by linear actuators that
Hong and his colleagues are
engineering from scratch.
Although THOR and
other DRC contenders have
humanoid forms, teams are
free to design any kind of
machine they want. So it's
possible that at the finals
we may see robots with

distinctly nonhuman shapes
or features that enhance
their capabilities. The
Carnegie Mellon team, for
example, is building CHIMP
(CMU Highly Intelligent
Mobile Platform), which
looks like a cross between an
ape and a tank. Its limbs have
tracks at their extremities,
to assist with locomotion
over uneven terrain.
DARPA tried to make the
program as open as possible,
and more than 100 teams
registered. In the end, only
a dozen or so are expected
to make it to the finals. The
agency provided some of the
teams with financial support.
Others are self-funded.
To make the DRC
accessible to groups that
couldn't afford to build
their own robots, DARPA
organized a virtual
competition, which took
place in June. Teams not
building hardware had to
use a simulator, developed
by the Open Source Robotics
Foundation, to program
a virtual humanoid to
perform some of the tasks
that will be judged in the
real contest.
But here's the best part:
The top performers in the
virtual competition were
each allowed to borrow a
$2 million robot from DARPA
for the upcoming hardware

FUn FaCt: The Atlas
robot built for the DARPA
Robotics Challenge is
so strong that it can
kick cinder blocks and
reduce them to dust.
illusTraTions by

James Provost
http://SPectrUm.ieee.orG
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum January, 2014
