Pentagon Wants Rescue Robots Built In Time For the Next Natural DisasterSusanne Posel, Contributor According to Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA): Our best robotic tools are helping, but they are not yet robust enough to function in all environments and perform the basic tasks needed to mitigate a crisis situation. Even in degraded post-disaster situations, the environment is scaled to the human world, requiring navigation of human obstacles such as doors and stairs, manipulation of human objects such as vehicles and power tools, and recognition of common human objects such as levers and valves. DARPA has awarded Boston Dynamics, Inc. a $10.9 million contract to manufacture humanoid robots that are bi-pedal, built like humans and have a sensor head with on-board computing capabilities. Completion of the project is expected for August of 2014. Another of DARPAs interests into robotics is the Avatar for the allocation of bi-pedal robots and essential super-soldiers and has devoted $7 million of its $2.8 billion 2012 budget to developing interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldiers surrogate. DARPAs Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program seeks to find ways to utilize different remote robotic manipulation systems that are controlled by humans. This program is divided into 3 aspects: By offering a $2 million prize, seven teams providing hardware, humanoid prototypes and engineering to provide ideas about how a synthetic rescue force should be created. Not all entries are humanoid; some having 3 legs and one arm, one being the size of a 10-year-old boy. Robonaut, being used on the International Space Station, performs tasks that are too dangerous or mundane for the astronauts in space. Both Robonaut 1 and 2 were commissioned and created by General Motors (GM) and Oceaneering Space Systems engineers who expedited the technological advancements of these anthropomorphic robots. In 2010, DARPA revealed a robot at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference in Denver that was interactive in a public forum. Participants would write software and have the robot preform specified tasks. The goal of this event was to show that robots were being developed by the US government to preform dangerous tasks such as disarming an explosive device thereby reducing significant human interaction. Universities and other government-controlled agencies such as Carnegie Mellon University, HRL Laboratories, iRobot, NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SRI, and the University of Southern California, provided teams of researchers to write software for DARPA. The robots bi-pedal structure fits perfectly on a naval ship; with narrow corridors, hatches and ladders. The other benefit is the assured cooperation of this artificial intelligence with the human crew it will be interacting with on a daily basis. Its features will be comprehension and possibly the ability to respond to naturally spoken language as opposed to simple commands. SAFFIR will be equipped with sensory devices, a video camera, gas sensors and a stereo infrared camera that will enable it to see through smoke. Its titanium joints will allow for fluid movement. RELATED ACTIVIST POST ARTICLES: Susanne Posel is the Chief Editor of Occupy Corporatism. Our alternative news site is dedicated to reporting the news as it actually happens; not as it is spun by the corporately funded mainstream media. You can find us on ourFacebook page. linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 