NASA JPL’s RoboSimian, one of the finalists in DARPA’s robotics challenge, was created to help human workers in natural or man-made disasters.
It is one of the few non-bipedal finalists in the challenge. Principal Investigator Brett Kennedy said the robot is more for doing mechanical tasks, e.g. flipping a switch, in disaster areas than for rescuing survivors. It uses cameras and lidar to build a 3D map of its surroundings, and then sends that map to its operator so that they can guide the robot to its destination.
The 25 finalists will face their final challenge – a simulated disaster-response course – in California on June 5 – 6.
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. 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.
