Teams participating in DARPA's Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC) arrived on Monday to the headquarters of Boston Dynamics in Waltham, Mass. for the unveiling of their new teammate, the ATLAS robot.
Teams will have until December 2013 to teach ATLAS moves it will need to succeed in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials.
According to DARPA's press release, each robot must perform a series of tasks comparable to what might be required in a "disaster response scenario."
"The Virtual Robotics Challenge was a proving ground for teams' ability to create software to control a robot in a hypothetical scenario. The DRC Simulator tasks were fairly accurate representations of real world causes and effects, but the experience wasn't quite the same as handling an actual, physical robot," Gill Pratt, program manager for the DARPA Robotics Challenge said in a statement. "Now these seven teams will see if their simulation-honed algorithms can run a real machine in real environments. And we expect all teams will be further refining their algorithms, using both simulation and experimentation."
ATLAS, a six-foot-two, 330-pound robot, is capable of a range of natural movements and is equipped with:
On-board real-time control computer;
Hydraulic pump and thermal management;
Two arms, two legs, a torso and a head;
28 hydraulically actuated joints;
Carnegie Robotics sensor head with LIDAR and stereo sensors; and
Two sets of hands, one provided by iRobot and one by Sandia National Labs.
DARPA selected the following six teams to advance to the DRC Trials:
Carnegie Mellon University, National Robotics Engineering Center - CHIMP
Drexel University - Hubo
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - RoboSimian
NASA Johnson Space Center - Valkyrie
SCHAFT Inc.
Virginia Tech - T.H.O.R.
According to the news release, the winning teams will also receive funding from DARPA and ongoing technical support from Boston Dynamics, the developer of ATLAS.
