DARPA will hold a contest to create a humanoid robot-worker

Over the next few weeks, the defense agency DARPA will announce a scientific competition to develop a unique humanoid robot that can perform a variety of human activities: to drive a car, to open a door, to walk over rough terrain, to move through the obstructions, to repair burst pipes, to perform operations that require fine motor finger skills etc.

Initially, plans to develop a robot that can work alongside or instead of a man seeped into the American media, and were later confirmed by DARPA representatives.

The aim of the new program is to create a humanoid robot that can operate in the same environment as the person - in the plants’ workshops, on the decks of ships, etc., using the tools created for human hands. Initially, the robot is designed to work in industrial objects and natural disasters zones. In the future, military application is not excluded, in the end, weapons is also a tool, fitted under the human anatomy.

12 most promising projects to be financed by DARPA will be selected first within the contest.

There is a hope for the implementation of the ambitious project. Currently, there are many technologies of autonomous robot control. Thus, under the Grand Challenge automated vehicles that can move independently through the rough terrain are designed, while humanoid NASA Robonaut robot-astronaut is working at the ISS. A number of military programs, such as Cheetah and AlphaDog, demonstrate the possibility of copying the musculoskeletal system of animals and communication between man and machine, and Petman or Sacros robots, in fact, are a mechanical copy of the human body, a copy with more features and survival.

DARPA Experts hope that the competition will manage to combine these technologies in a unique humanoid robot capable of replacing the man in the most dangerous or vice versa routine activities.