DARPA is poised to launch a new Grand Challenge for a humanoid robot, according to robotics insiders — and the result could be a souped-up metal soldier running alongside BigDog, driving an ATV, unlocking doors and clearing a path to safety for its human counterparts. There’s no official agency announcement yet, but robotics companies heard all about it at a recent industry day.
An official broad agency announcement is reportedly due soon, but here’s what we can expect, according to the robotics researchers aHizook: A bipedal humanoid ‘bot that can climb in and out of a tractor or open-frame utility vehicle, drive it, get out, walk to a locked door, open it and go inside; then walk through a rubble-strewn hallway, climb a latter, find a leaky pipe, seal it and fix a broken pump. Wow. The robot will be remotely operated, at least in part, but DARPA also plans to introduce some communications latency so the robot will have no choice but to act on its own.
via Popular Science
