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"  Update, Fri., Dec. 20: PopMech is here in Florida as the DAPRA Robotics Challenge heats up this weekend. For updates from the competition, follow PopMech on Twitter and check out the PopMech Wire blog. During the DARPA Robotics Challenge, happening outside Miami this coming weekend, human-shaped robots will navigate rough terrain, climb ladders, and even drive cars and use human tools to prove they can enter disaster areas and conduct rescue operations. &amp;quot;The world is built for human beings,&amp;quot; says DARPA program manager Gill Pratt. &amp;quot;Robots need to operate in that environment.&amp;quot; PopMech will be down in Florida for the event, beginning Friday. After speaking to some of the teams as they prepare for the contest, there are reasons beyond pure spectacle to be excited about the contest. With some luck, the team members say, this contest could herald a new age of robotics on the move. &amp;quot;Typically, when you say robotics people think of car-assembly pieces in a Ford factory,&amp;quot; says Steve DiAntonio, director of business opportunities at the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon. &amp;quot;But mobile manipulation is where it&amp;#039;s at today\u2014mobility with the control of factory robots.&amp;quot; Carnegie Mellon&amp;#039;s robot, CHIMP (the CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform), can move around on all fours or stand like a human. Laser radar sensors enable CHIMP to create a 3D map of its surroundings. Operators use the imagery, as well as video cameras mounted in CHIMP&amp;#039;s head, to direct the robot&amp;#039;s actions. The robot operates autonomously to protect itself from falling and to perform certain tasks, while remote operators provide guidance on where to drive, what to grasp, and which way to turn a valve, the researchers say. &amp;amp;gt;  Like several other contestants in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the Carnegie Mellon team competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge. That contest offered an award for self-driving cars that could finish a course, and is credited with spurring the advancement of collision-avoidance and lane-keeping sensors on cars. Many DRC contestants hope that this competition will inspire the same kind of acceptance of mobile robots that the Grand Challenge did for automation in cars.  One clear beneficiary of DARPA&amp;#039;s penchant for contests is TORC Robotics, part of Team ViGIR (Virginia-Germany Interdisciplinary Robotics). The company is collaborating with researchers from Technische Universit\u00E4t (TU) Darmstadt, Virginia Tech, and Oregon State University. TORC project manager Jesse Hurdus says the contests give them an opportunity to showcase their technology\u2014and then sell it to industry. &amp;quot;We like it because it levels the playing field for smaller contenders,&amp;quot; he says. And he wants history to repeat itself\u2014TORC was part of a team that finished the course during the DARPA Grand Challenge. TORC now sells kits that convert cars and trucks into self-driving vehicles. &amp;quot;The root of this came from the DARPA challenge,&amp;quot; he says.  The equivalent of self-driving cars in this challenge would be mobile robots that can influence the world around them. &amp;quot;We have navigation, sensing, and perception figured out, says Daniel Lofaro of Drexel University, leader of the team operating the HUBO robot. &amp;quot;Mobile manipulation is a new thing, though. Once you get the robot there, it&amp;#039;s helpless.&amp;quot; Lofaro says he wants to see moving robots have the level of detail and accuracy found in industrial robots used on car assembly lines. He calls it &amp;quot;compliance that deals with error&amp;quot;\u2014compliance meaning the way a robot moves when force is applied. For example, a robot can&amp;#039;t walk the same way if it&amp;#039;s carrying a load, and can&amp;#039;t balance the same way if it&amp;#039;s turning a valve. Before robots can go out into the world, they need to be able to adjust to rapidly changing circumstances. &amp;quot;Robots are ridiculously strong and things are fragile in the world,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;We need good feedback and really quickly. The robot will turn the door knob but tears the door off its hinges.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a9860/the-robot-olympic-and-the-future-of-disaster-response-16278995/>