The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's latest Grand
Challenge is its 2012 $2 million Robotics Challenge. It invites
engineers to come up with humanoid ground-based robots that can
work in dangerous environments, including post-disaster
scenarios like the artist's conception shown here. One priority
for the challenge is developing supervised autonomous robots
that non-experts can operate. These robots should also work in
situations with poor electronic communications, such as
intermittent or low-fidelity transmission. Tasks include driving
a utility vehicle, traveling dismounted across rubble, removing
debris blocking an entryway, and using a tool to break through a
concrete panel. The contest will ask designers to build a single
robot that performs all these tasks during several challenges,
which will require new designs in both robot hardware and
control software. (Source: DARPA) BEAR reminds me of Robo-Cop.
It is a great idea to use the robots to interact with victims.
If the robots had audio capab