My stomach muscles still hurt from laughing so hard from watching the most high-tech robots in the world compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals last weekend.
Apparently, after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, it seemed that not a single robot existed that could reasonably spare human beings from extremely dangerous relief and clean-up work. So the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issued a challenge to the most advanced robot scientists on earth to build a robot that could potentially save human lives by performing real-world disaster relief tasks.
After several trials, which I’m sure weeded out plenty of smart robots who were not genius enough to go to the Finals, the top 23 came to compete for a $2 million prize on a Pomona, California obstacle course that was specially designed to simulate a post-disaster environment.
Watching online, the Finals proved to be unexpectedly hilarious and completely awesome.
The robots, most of which were either human-ish or ape-like in design, all looked like big Transformer toys, which my sons used to flip and twist into a new shape with lightning speed. But there was nothing speedy about these future robot heroes. In hysterical, agonizing slow motion, they fell over, got up, got stuck and unstuck as they maneuvered the course facing tricky robot challenges like climbing stairs, turning a valve, cutting a hole and walking over scrap metal.
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when a robot fell backward down a flight of stairs. I don’t know why it was so dang funny, but I kept replaying the video over and over because I couldn’t stop laughing. I laughed more when other robots wobbled and toppled over for no apparent reason. I laughed at a little robotic dog that was entertaining the audience by prancing in place like a real mutt that could barely contain it’s excitement at the prospect of going for a walk. But all I had to do was look at a robot called Running Man and I would crack up, because the robot’s arms were positioned in such a way that it looked to me like it was about to “get down and boogie.”
My favorite was a shiny red robot that looked like a super-buff primate, CHIMP, which came from the massive brain power of Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Rescue Team. I was rooting for CHIMP because on our recent backpacking trip, we camped next to a really nice couple – Justin, who is on the Tartan Rescue Team, and Eryn, an Adventure Aromatherapist & Soapmaker who owns a company called Apothecary Muse.
(By the way, it’s not every day that a middle-aged mom meets such extremely cool people.)
Anyway, CHIMP proved that it was a contender on the first day of competition when it opened a door and toppled forward in hilarious slow-mo. Of course, falling over does not appear to be unusual for robots. But then CHIMP astounded everyone when it displayed its sheer mechanical brilliance by using deliberate, precise, turtle-paced movements to PICK ITSELF UP, which appears to be VERY unusual for robots.
So, bottom line: CHIMP came in 3rd Place (yay!), Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Rescue Team came home with a hefty $500,000 prize (yay!), and I discovered a new world of DARPA fun.
Robots definitely rock!
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photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/90628118@N06/18507374666″>150605-N-PO203-565</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a>
CHIMP photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/90628118@N06/18602660241″>150606-N-PO203-655</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>(license)</a>