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Disaster Robot Hopes to Go Where Humans Can't
Drexel University roboticists are competing in $2 million challenge to develop human-like robot that could avert a nuclear disaster
A nuclear reactor is on the verge of meltdown.
Deep inside the reactor building, a manual valve must be turned to release the pressure, but the radiation levels are too high for people to venture inside the building.
Enter DIRC -- a humanoid robot able to walk through the plant, get to the valve, turn it to stop the meltdown and avert a nuclear disaster.
This is the type of disaster researchers and students at Drexel University are hoping their robot can one day help avoid.
“This is supposed to work in human surroundings such as if there’s a lot of radiation in a disaster scene… or clean up waste using tools that humans would normally use, but because it’s dangerous for humans to be there, we want a robot to do those tasks,” said researcher Dr. Daniel Lofaro.
Dr. Lofaro and his Drexel colleagues are leading a team of researchers from nine other universities -- including the University of Delaware and Swarthmore -- and companies to build the most robust robot capable of venturing where humans can’t during disasters. The group, named DRC-HUBO, is competing for a $2 million prize as part of the U.S. Department of Defense’s DARPA Robotics Challenge which seeks to have a working robot in service by 2020. Dr. Lafaro said the competition came about following the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan in March 2011.
“Someone needed to go in and turn a valve to turn on the cooling system would have had the radiation not leak out. We couldn’t send in a human to do that because they couldn’t have gotten half way before dying,” he said.
That disaster continues to have major lasting effects on the country. Officials are now considering upgrading the nuclear crisis threat level to serious as radioactive water continues to leak from the crippled facility.
DIRC, which is currently in the beta stages of development, is honing its skills to complete eight tasks as part of an upcoming demonstration in Homestead, Fla. this December. The robot will have to easily walk over rubble, traverse stairs and ladders, use tools like axes, saws and hammers, turn valves, break through walls and even drive everyday vehicles on its own, among other things.
“[In Fukushima] they tried sending in robots, but all they could do was drive around and look at things,” Dr. Lafaro said.
To develop DIRC, the team took an already produced robot called HUBO and super-sized it to be able to handle holding additional weight and complete the more complex tasks.
While the entire team is working on DIRC, researchers from each institution are focusing on developing individual features necessary to complete the tasks. For example, one school is developing the robot’s vision, while another school works on the robot’s ability to walk.
“They’re all experts in different fields. We have not just this one thought process, we have many different thought processes to develop the robot algorithm to do all these tasks,” he said.
Among the harder tasks to teach the robot: driving. But the act of driving is not issue. Dr. Lofaro says the use of GPS makes that easy. Instead, the most difficult acts happen before the car even starts moving.
“The hardest part is getting the robot into the vehicle,” he said. “Once we get the robot in the vehicle to actually turn the wheel and step on the gas, the driving part is a solved task,” he said.
The team has spent the summer putting DIRC through the paces on a course built inside a warehouse on the school’s University City’s campus – preparing for the December trial. If it gets the Department of Defense’s stamp of approval for the current round, the team will have another year to get DIRC ready for prime time – which includes operating autonomously.
The robot’s current iteration requires some help from a human operator assist in navigating an area, but Dr. Lafaro expects DIRC to be thinking on its own long before the 2020 deployment date.
“That may seem far-fetched, but think about seven years ago from now. Did you have an iPhone? No. Were you able to communicate from one side of the world to another that quickly? No,” he said. “So seven years isn’t a very long period of time.”
Source: http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/tech/Disaster-Robot-Hopes-to-Go-Where-Humans-Cant-220546331.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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