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Robot Olympics tests which intelligent machine is the best emergency worker candidate

WE’VE created them. They’re evolving. Do they have a plan? The world’s best robots have been assembled by the US military — for an olympiad of physical and intellectual challenges.

Jamie SeidelJamie Seidel
@JamieSeidel
less than 2 min read
June 6, 2015 - 7:39AM
News Corp Australia Network
Top dog ... United States Marines and representatives from Boston Dynamics look at Spot, a four-legged robot designed for indoor and outdoor operation, during the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge. Source: AFP
Top dog ... United States Marines and representatives from Boston Dynamics look at Spot, a four-legged robot designed for indoor and outdoor operation, during the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge. Source: AFP

WE’VE created them. They’re evolving. Do they have a plan? The world’s most advanced robots are being brought together by the military — for an olympiad of physical and intellectual challenges.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge is pitting 25 different teams against each other in a gruelling series of challenges designed to emulate those faced by rescue workers.

Higher. Faster. Further. These challenges are being embodied in challenges including navigation through mock disaster zones, moving through rubble — and contending with disrupted communications.

The most successful machine will win its team a $2 million prize.

Will this be the precursors to the chrome-covered hordes which will hunt us down amid the ruins of civilisation in decades to come?

Or will it lead to the utopian vision of a mass of mechanical slaves in every home, waving fans — peeling grapes — and going to work on our behalf?

Rescue worker ... The robot Running Man from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition proceeds grabs a drill during then. S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge. Source: AP
Rescue worker ... The robot Running Man from the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition proceeds grabs a drill during then. S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency Robotics Challenge. Source: AP

The event, which is now underway, is the final in a series of elimination games which have been sponsored by the US military research and development organisation DARPA since 2012.

It was the explosion and fire within the Japanese Fukushima nuclear power plant which spurred the competition: If suitable robots had been available at the time, human first-responders would not have had to be placed at risk while investigating the damage.

Researchers from China, Japan, Italy, Germany and the United States have responded to the call.

THE CHALLENGE

True to its original inspiration, almost every aspect of the robot Olympics relates to roles and missions:

DRIVE a vehicle to a simulated disaster area

MOVE over a debris field

CLIMB stairs

CLOSE a valve

MAKE its own decisions when communications are cut

CUT a hole in a wall

RECONNECT wires

RETURN to the vehicle

There will also be a task the robot designers have not been told about — designed to test the adaptability and flexibility of each machine.

The entire event will be live-streamed on the DARPA YouTube channel.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/robot-olympics-tests-which-intelligent-machine-is-the-best-emergency-worker-candidate/news-story/9a1a38f3fe3c77f19a838f1fa55ac7a7