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DARPA Robotics Challenge 2013: Google-Owned SCHAFT Robot Blows Away The Competition [VIDEO]
At the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials 2013, 16 teams competed in eight tasks for a chance to advance to the finals, where they would have a chance to win a $2 million grand prize. Team SCHAFT and its bipedal robot won the trials handily, earning 27 points, while NASA's Valkyrie robot failed to score any points in the trial.
For the trials, 17 teams were scheduled to compete, but Team Intelligent Pioneer, from China, canceled a few days before the event. The 16 teams were selected through four different tracks: Track A teams received funding by DARPA to develop hardware and software; Track B teams received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop software and were given an ATLAS robot; Track C teams were independently funded but later received DARPA funding for software development and used an ATLAS robot; Track D teams did not receive any funding from DARPA and developed hardware and software.
The DARPA Robotics Challenge was held at the Homestead Miami Speedway, located in Florida, and the track was transformed to a disaster area. According to DARPA, the main goal of the DRC is to develop robots that can work in dangerous environments; the tasks simulate potential situations and challenges that would be encountered during a disaster. The robots compete in such tasks as attaching and turning on a hose, shutting off valves, cleaning up debris, drilling through walls and climbing a ladder. A total of 32 points could be earned, 3 points for completing the primary objectives in each task and a bonus point for completing the entire task without human intervention.
Team SCHAFT competed with a bipedal robot that was based on its HRP-2 robot and earned 27 points over the weekend. The SCHAFT robot earned "best in task" in four tasks: terrain, ladder, debris and hose, reports Gizmodo.
IHMC Robotics developed software for an ATLAS robot, a humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics that finished in second place with 20 points. Carnegie Mellon University's CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform, CHIMP, robot finished in third place with 18 points. The MIT-controlled ATLAS robot finished in fourth place (16 points) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's RoboSimian finished in fifth place (14 points).
According to DARPA, up to eight teams could advance to the 2014 finals, earning another $1 million in funding, and would compete for the $2 million grand prize. Three teams controlling ATLAS robots, TRACLabs, WRECS and Trooper rounded out the top eight, earning 11, 11 and 9 points, respectively.
Prior to DRC, Google announced it purchased SCHAFT as well as Boston Dynamics. Andy Rubin, co-founder of Android Inc., will serve as head of the search giant's robotics mission, reports New York Times.
Videos of the DARPA Robotics Challenge 2013 can be viewed below.
Day 1 Wrap Up:
Day 2 Wrap Up:
DRC 2013 Task Playlist:
Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/darpa-robotics-challenge-2013-google-owned-schaft-robot-blows-away-competition-video-1518202
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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”.