DARPA ROBOT LOOKS HUMAN
Petman Tests Camo Clothing for Chemical Protection
Watch for a few seconds. Imagine this guy knocking at your door to conduct a police manhunt for a suspected terrorist. Say hello to the future.
Released by Boston Dynamics April 5
The PETMAN robot was developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from the DoD CBD program. It is used to test the performance of protective clothing designed for hazardous environments. The video shows initial testing in a chemical protection suit and gas mask. PETMAN has sensors embedded in its skin that detect any chemicals leaking through the suit. The skin also maintains a micro-climate inside the clothing by sweating and regulating temperature. Partners in developing PETMAN were MRIGlobal, Measurement Technology Northwest, Smith Carter, SRD, CUH2A, and HHI.
Much more from DARPA below.
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DARPA's Cheetah Bolts Past the Competition
DARPA's Cheetah robot—already the fastest legged robot in history—just broke its own land speed record of 18 miles per hour (mph). In the process, Cheetah also surpassed another very fast mover: Usain Bolt. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, Bolt set the world speed record for a human in 2009 when he reached a peak speed of 27.78 mph for a 20-meter split during the 100-meter sprint. Cheetah was recently clocked at 28.3 mph for a 20-meter split. The Cheetah had a slight advantage over Bolt as it ran on a treadmill, the equivalent of a 28.3 mph tail wind, but most of the power Cheetah used was to swing its legs fast enough, not to propel itself forward.
Cheetah is being developed and tested under DARPA's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program by Boston Dynamics. The increase in speed since results were last reported in March 2012 is due to improved control algorithms and a more powerful pump.
DARPA's intent with the Cheetah bot and its other robotics programs is to attempt to understand and engineer into robots certain core capabilities that living organisms have refined over millennia of evolution: efficient locomotion, manipulation of objects and adaptability to environments. By drawing inspiration from nature, DARPA gains technological building blocks that create possibilities for a whole range of robots suited to future Department of Defense missions.
For more on Cheetah and DARPA's other robotics programs, visit: http://go.usa.gov/rVqk
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Have Two Arms, Will Work
DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program is developing software, hardware and sensors to enable robots to semi-autonomously grasp and manipulate objects in unstructured environments (meaning, "outside of a laboratory") with human operators providing only task-level instructions. For example, rather than dictating step-by-step every movement a robot makes, a human can give DARPA's ARM robot a high-level command like "Open the door" or "Screw in the bolt." Performers on the ARM program have already demonstrated success using one arm and hand to manipulate objects. Now DARPA is having teams test two arms and hands on tasks that require bimanual manipulation, like the robot changing a tire shown in this video. If DARPA is successful with grasping and manipulation, while also making robots more adaptable to changing environments and driving down the cost of production, robotic manipulation systems can be applied to a wide range of potentially dangerous Department of Defense applications, including defusing improvised explosive devices and searching bags.
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LS3 Follow Tight - Start Watching at 40 Seconds
Working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), researchers from DARPA's LS3 program demonstrated new advances in the robot's control, stability and maneuverability, including "Leader Follow" decision making, enhanced roll recovery, exact foot placement over rough terrain, the ability to maneuver in an urban environment, and verbal command capability.
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DON'T SKIP THIS ONE
DARPA's Wound Stasis Technology
A foam-based technology developed under DARPA's Wound Stasis System program has demonstrated encouraging results in testing. In test models, the foam has been shown to control hemorrhaging in a patient's intact abdominal cavity for at least one hour. During testing, application of the product reduced blood loss six-fold and increased the rate of survival at three hours post-injury to 72 percent from the eight percent observed in controls.
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Electronics Dissolved by Droplet of Liquid
This DARPA video shows how a new class of electronics can safely dissolve into small amounts of liquid. Transient electronics are electronic systems and components that use ultrathin sheets of silicon and magnesium encapsulated in silk. The thickness and crystallinity of the silk determines how long the electronics take to dissolve. Silicon, and magnesium are naturally occurring at low levels in the human body, and since the amount of material used in these devices is below physiological levels, these electronics are biocompatible and eco-friendly.
DARPA hopes this advance will lead to biodegradable medical treatments for remote patient care that does not require extraction surgery while warfighters are deployed.
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Drone High Altitude Refueling Test Flight
Who needs a pilot?
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DARPA's Pet-Proto Robot Navigates Obstacles
In this video, the Pet-Proto, a predecessor to DARPA's Atlas robot, is confronted with obstacles similar to those robots might face in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). To maneuver over and around the obstacles, the robot exercises capabilities including autonomous decision-making, dismounted mobility and dexterity. The DARPA Robotics Challenge will test these and other capabilities in a series of tasks that will simulate conditions in a dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environment. Teams participating in Tracks B and C of the DRC will compete for access to a modified version of the Atlas robot for use in the 2013 and 2014 live disaster-response challenge events.
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