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DARPA gives an R/C chopper the legs of a dragonfly
DARPA has revealed a new kind of landing gear that allows helicopters to land on inclines and uneven terrain, a feat that's generally impossible using traditional landing skids. Rather than the fixed landing gear that most helicopters sport, this new set of four articulated legs is designed to work much like an insect's. Each leg is outfitted with force feedback sensors that tells it how much pressure to exert in order to keep the aircraft level, regardless of terrain.
Prosthetic hand restores a man's sense of touch
DARPA promised prosthetic limbs that produce realistic sensations, and it's making good on its word. The agency's researchers have successfully tested an artificial hand that gave a man a "near-natural" level of touch. The patient could tell when scientists were pressing against specific fingers, even when they tried to 'trick' the man by touching two digits at once. The key was to augment the thought-controlled hand with a set of pressure-sensitive torque motors wired directly to the brain -- any time the hand touched something, it sent electrical signals that felt much like flesh-and-bone contact.
Self-destructing computer chip can protect top secret data
You probably wouldn't bat an eyelash if you see a self-destructing computer chip in a Mission Impossible movie, but what if one actually exists in real life? Xerox PARC engineers have developed a chip that can explode into teensy little pieces as part of DARPA's Vanishing Programmable Resources project. To make that possible, they used Gorilla Glass instead of plastic and metal. Yes, it's the same tough glass used on many available smartphones, but the engineers told IDG News Service's Martyn Williams that they "ion-exchange temper[ed] it to build in stress." A piece of glass that's heavily stressed will easily shatter and disintegrate when triggered.
ICYMI: portable laser cannons, robotic tackling dummies, and fungus furniture
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-495312{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-495312, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-495312{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-495312").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It, Boeing unveils a drone-destroying laser cannon the size of a travel trunk. Also up, North Korea shows us all how calisthenics are done, a guy makes an ottoman out of mushrooms, and Dartmouth College unleashed a robotic tackling dummy upon its football team. If you come across any interesting videos, we'd love to see them. Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag @engadget or @mskerryd. And if you just want to heap praise on your handsome guest host, feel free to hit him up @mr_trout.
DARPA wants to launch and land Gremlins on moving planes
DARPA wants to transform airplanes into drone carriers. Last year, the agency invited technical ideas and business expertise to help create a reusable airborne system. Today, it announced the launch of the Gremlins program that's designed to make that air-recoverable unmanned system a reality. According to Dan Patt, program manager at DARPA, the "goal is to conduct a compelling proof-of-concept flight demonstration that could employ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other modular, non-kinetic payloads in a robust, responsive and affordable manner."
Military AI interface helps you make sense of thousands of photos
It's easy to find computer vision technology that detect objects in photos, but it's still tough to sift through photos... and that's a big challenge for the military, where finding the right picture could mean taking out a target or spotting a terrorist threat. Thankfully, the US' armed forces may soon have a way to not only spot items in large image libraries, but help human observers find them. DARPA's upcoming, artificial intelligence-backed Visual Media Reasoning system both detects what's in a shot and presents it in a simple interface that bunches photos and videos together based on patterns. If you want to know where a distinctive-looking car has been, for example, you might only need to look in a single group.
Younger generations don't fear the robot revolution
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-999036").style.display="none";}catch(e){} With every new bot on the block, we're inching closer to sharing our homes with machines. DARPA's recent Robotics Challenge wasn't about finding the best personal robot companion, but hinted at a future where they will run free (albeit very slowly) and rush to save lives when disaster strikes. But beyond the much-talked about hunt for first responder bots, DARPA had a lesser known contest that seemed just as pertinent as the main event. The agency set up Robots4Us, a contest for high school students, to reach out to the demographic that's most likely going to share space with robots. Teens from across the country sent in short videos about their hopes and fears for the future of robots. In the end, five young winners made their way to Pomona, California, for the robotics challenge to present their version of the future. Instead of the dystopian narrative that usually accompanies robotics, each student envisioned a collaborative space for robots and humans to coexist. Turns out, the generation that will most likely hang out with a bot at home isn't robophobic at all.
The bots that bucked the humanoid trend at DARPA's challenge
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-897542{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-897542, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-897542{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-897542").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Humanoids are supposed to be best suited for a world that's engineered for humans. They can climb stairs, open doors and drive cars. At DARPA Robotics Challenge, most of the participating humanoids succeeded in completing those tasks, but when it came to walking, they were clumsier than the species they were designed to emulate. Getting a machine to put one foot in front of the other has been a priority for roboticists for decades. Bipedal locomotion would presumably make it easier for robots to navigate a man-made world and perhaps make them more relatable. But the movement requires sophisticated control software and advanced AI technology that isn't quite ready yet.
This ultra-efficient robot walks just like people do
You don't have to worry about robots rising up against humanity anytime soon -- the bipedal ones, at least. When they aren't constantly falling down, two-legged robots are running down their power supplies due to inefficient gaits and wasted motion. During a recent DARPA competition, teams from Sandia National Labs and SRI International squared off to see whose robot could walk the furthest. SRI's robot, dubbed the "DURUS," won out by walking 2.05 kilometers in just over two and a half hours while using just 350 watts of power. For those of us who aren't electrical engineers, that's a really impressive feat. In fact, the DURUS uses up to 30 times less power than the ATLAS robot employed in the DARPA challenge.
Team MIT's robot lost the DARPA challenge but won over the crowd
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-996107{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-996107, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-996107{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-996107").style.display="none";}catch(e){} At the DARPA Robotics Challenge last week, a robot drove in on a red UTV. The vehicle slowly came to a halt on the obstacle course as it reached the door of a simulated disaster building. The driver, a six-foot-two Atlas humanoid, sat motionless for many minutes. About half a dozen researchers wearing blue "TEAM MIT" vests looked on, like anxious parents waiting for their child to pick up the pace in a crucial race. When their robot eventually turned its body to get out of the vehicle, it shook uncontrollably for seconds before it leaped out of the car and fell flat on its face. The crowd collectively gasped and a loud aww rippled through the stands at Fairplex in Pomona, California. In that moment, one of the front-runners in the race became the underdog.
The machines that rose to DARPA's robotics challenge
The robot apocalypse has been postponed. At DARPA Robotics Challenge in California, where the world's best and brightest robots came to compete, the machines were far from invincible. They moved at a glacial pace, stumbled and slammed to the ground and lay there motionless until their teams of humans came with a rig to pick them up. But their falls and flaws revealed how vulnerable they are, and actually made them seem more human in the process. These machines exhibited grit, intelligence and dexterity that could potentially make them stellar first-responders in disaster situations in the near future.
We're not doomed: A supercut of robots falling down
Today's action at the DARPA Robotics Challenge has been interesting, but if there's one takeaway so far it's this: the robot apocalypse is not here yet. If you've been warily looking on as robots run, jump, wield swords and even fold themselves up origami-style, this video clip of all the times robots fell over during he competition is exactly what the doctor ordered. Now, we're sure these teams will continue developing their technology and someday, a robot will master the art of stepping out of an ATV well enough to subjugate squishy organic lifeforms (or save them from disasters, which is the point of the competition) -- just not today. Update: More video is coming in, and we may have laughed too soon. Besides the numerous successful attempts at traversing areas of DARPA's obstacle course, Carnegie Mellon's CHIMP robot showed mettle by picking itself up after a fall. Check out the clip after the break, plus a bonus video showing the MIT "Cheetah" quadruped taking a tumble.
Watch RoboSimian prepare for DARPA's Robotics Challenge finals
I've got to be honest: the moment I saw the robot above straighten its torso like some sort of a human-arachnid hybrid, I felt a tinge of fear. Good thing NASA JPL designed it to help humans in times of need, eh? This is RoboSimian, one of the few non-biped finalists for DARPA's Robotics Challenge. It was created to become a first responder in times of natural or man-made disasters, finding survivors and going to places humans can't visit. In the videos below the fold, you can watch its creators from NASA JPL explain the technologies they incorporated into the simian/crab-inspired machine. You can also watch Team RoboSimian prepare for DARPA's Robotics Challenge finals this Friday and Saturday, where the robot will scuttle (or drive, because yes, it can drive) around in a simulated disaster area. We'll be at the finals this weekend and might get the chance to talk to the team, so make sure to check back for more on this crazy-looking machine.
How to watch the DARPA Robotics Challenge finals online for free
DARPA's Robotics Challenge is finally coming to a close. The finals will be held on June 5th to 6th, almost three years after the contest was launched, in Pomona, California -- but you thankfully can watch it live, even if you can't make it there in person. CuriosityStream, a new website the serves up documentaries, will live stream all 25 contenders as they go through a series of tasks in a simulated disaster-response course during the event. It will also show a few specials explaining the idea behind the challenge, a couple of finalist profiles and documentaries tackling the 2011 nuclear plant catastrophe in Japan. This contest is part of DARPA's efforts to find an effective first-response and search-and-rescue humanoid robot, prompted by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster.
US Air Force and DARPA team up on hypersonic weapons
"What do we want to do with this technology? We want to weaponize it." The US Air Force told Military.com it's planning to build on the X-51A WaveRider's "scramjet" (supersonic ramjet) trials to develop hypersonic weapons that compress air by sheer velocity. During tests in 2013, the WaveRider set a record by flying at Mach 5.1 (3,400mph) for over three minutes after it was dropped from a B-2H bomber and accelerated by a rocket. While those trials were just a proof-of-concept, the Air Force has teamed up with DARPA take the technology to the next level.
DARPA to develop best practices for 3D printing
Just as steel's physical properties change depending on how it's produced, so too do 3D printed materials. However, unlike steel, we don't yet fully understand how different these newfound techniques affect the resulting printed item. Sometimes a printed item -- even if it's made from something common like aluminum -- ends up having a very different microstructure had it been created with traditional, subtractive methods. You can see an example of that below. Heck, even using the same material on different printer models can result items with wildly divergent properties. But DARPA is looking to change that. The DoD's advanced research agency announced Friday that it is launching an Open Manufacturing program to create comprehensive reference documentation for 3D printing and usher in an era of productive predictability.
DARPA wants you to help with its terrifying schemes... by gaming
If you like playing online games, then you too can help birth some (possibly sinister) software from DARPA. The US Army's slightly insane research division launched its Verigames web portal in late 2013 with five free online games designed to crowdsource coding. How? Like a similar effort that folded AIDS proteins, the games "translate players' actions into program annotations," to kill numerous bugs in systems code, according to DARPA. The first experiment was a success and "produced hundreds of thousands of (code) annotations," so the agency plans to expand the program with five new games.
Watch Atlas go through a push test before DARPA's Robotics Challenge
The DARPA Robotics Challenge finals is scheduled for June 5th to 6th, and we'll bet the finalists are now pulling all-nighters finishing up their entries. Team IHMC Robotics from the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, for instance, is working to further improve its Atlas-based machine called Running Man. In the video below the fold, you'll see the team demonstrate its fall avoidance and push recovery technique. If you recall, DARPA's contest is specifically looking for humanoid machines for disaster relief and search-and-rescue operations. We've got a feeling those types of robots won't be operating under the best conditions, so the ability to withstand outside forces will surely come in handy.
2001 DARPA movie predicts the state of today's technology
Does DARPA employ psychics or something? I mean they must, or how else can you explain this precognitive glimpse at the modern world? The advanced research agency produced it more than a decade ago! Admittedly, many of the ideas featured were already rolling out, in development or pulled from sci-fi, but you can see the futuristic vision (and ugly UIs everywhere) in this DARPA film, Strategic Cyber Defense. Included are a number of modern technologies such as ubiquitous touchscreens, voice activated computer interfaces (a la "Ok Google"), advanced behavioral analysis, real-time translation and automated cyber-defenses. Watch the video below to see how many of today's future technologies you can spot -- and how many are better off left as concepts that didn't pan out.
Prosthetic electrodes will return amputees' sense of touch
For all the functionality and freedom that modern prosthetics provide, they still cannot give their users a sense of what they're touching. That may soon change thanks to an innovative electrode capable of connecting a prosthetic arm's robotic sense of touch to the human nervous system that it's attached to. The device is part of a three year, $1.9 billion DARPA project and is being developed by Daniel Moran and his team at Washington University in St. Louis. The electrode, technically called a macro-sieve peripheral nerve interface, is comprised of a thin contact lens-like material less than 20 percent the diameter of a dime. It reportedly allows its users to feel heat, cold and pressure by stimulating the ulnar and median nerves of the upper arm.
