DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the government agency that has given us so much including the Internet, and their good friends Boston Dynamics, who have given us such wonderful, cuddly creations as Big Dog from the header picture, are now furthering work on their Atlas robot, a man-sized robot that is capable of navigating over obstacles, running, and maintaining its balance if impacted by an outside force.
Amazing as that is, Atlas is only capable of doing what it does while tethered via lifelines to a control center. However, and this is a big however, now with MIT's CSAIL lab at the helm they are getting ready to have those tethers removed, and Atlas will, if everything goes according to plan, be able to navigate on its bipedal own completely unattached to anything. I VERY STRONGLY encourage you to watch the video in that link (it wouldn't embed, sadly), as it is very interesting and a little unnerving.
This is a big deal, as robots have incredible difficulty maintaining balance if something goes wrong. Humans have well-developed systems that rely on all senses as well as the spine and inner ear to maintain balance, and we all know if they are thrown off even slightly we can become very sick or lose our orientation. Robots obviously don't do those last two, but their ability to balance and recover that balance is it's lost has to be programmed in. Here's another example of Atlas doing his thing.
This reminds me of the original Terminator movie that came out in the 1990's. I remember when the Terminator robot was just an idea in a movie and nothing but a fictional character. It seems that it has become more of a reality, and in due time, it will become a commonality. Honestly, the idea to have robots like the like the Atlas, intrigues me. I believe there is so much that this type of technology can do to help mankind.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of the movie Robocop. Obviously he is more advanced than this but it makes me wonder how long before prototype like Atlas gets there. Maybe they'll use robots like this for military purposes, even though this most cost right now a couple million. I would love to see a robot in real life, it would a be life changing experience.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing to see how far they have come in such a short period of time. The biggest issue I see is incorporating the battery and cooling system into the robot. I will interested to see how they plan on doing this and how that overcome the huge power draw from the hydraulic systems since this thing will have to operate for days without a recharge once it gets into the field.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty impressive, but one use I would like to see in the future is the idea of incorporating this technology with people that are disabled. The scary part is that because this is almost a full-size robot, someone who is severely disabled and/or paralyzed would benefit greatly if there was a way to amputate a paralyzed person's body and infuse them with a robot of this scale.
ReplyDeleteThis video was amazing in the way of advancement in robotics. I hadn't thought about robots being able to balance themselves and having the quick ability to adjust so fast. I agree with the discussion that we had in class on Friday, about the more a robot has humanistic qualities, the more we try to point out its in non-human flaws. The more we humanize robots the creepier they become. These robots could someday be able to be used in time of war. This would be very beneficial for our soldiers. Cool video!
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