/ News
JPL enters RoboSimian in the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals
Bigger may be better, but better isn't always better. In October, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California unveiled a new and improved version of its RoboSimian robot. Called Surrogate, it has many advantages over its predecessor, but it's RoboSimian that is going to next year's DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals.
Also named "Surge," Surrogate was unveiled at the inauguration of Thomas Rosenbaum as the new president of the California institute of Technology. Like RoboSimian, it's designed to operate in close-quarters disaster areas, such as damaged nuclear reactors, that are too dangerous for human relief workers. The idea is a robot that can negotiate broken ground, go up stairs and ladders, and carry out tasks using tools at hand, such as clearing debris, opening doors, or operating valves.
According to JPL, Surrogate was built using leftover limbs that were spares from the development of RoboSimian for earlier rounds of the DARPA challenge and uses the same basic computer code and its data files for identifying and using tools. Where RoboSimian looks like a nightmarish cross between a chimpanzee and a spider, Surrogate is more roughly humanoid. It stands 4.5 ft (1.4 m) high weighs 200 lb (90.7 kg), has an upright spine, and two arms. It's much more dexterous than RoboSimian and is better at manipulation. However, after six months of construction and testing, it was determined that RoboSimian would represent JPL during the finals next year.
It turns out that where RoboSimian can lumber like an ape on its tentacle-like arms, Surrogate rolls on tracks. This gives it speed and stability, but it doesn't do very well on debris-strewn areas or in navigating stairs or ladders, which RoboSimian can climb over. In addition, Surrogate has a head with two stereoscopic cameras, where RoboSimian lacks a head, but has seven cameras for all-around vision.
"It comes down to the fact that Surrogate is a better manipulation platform and faster on benign surfaces, but RoboSimian is an all-around solution, and we expect that the all-around solution is going to be more competitive in this case," says Brett Kennedy, principal investigator for the robots at JPL.
Kennedy went on to say that despite their advanced designs, neither Surrogate nor RoboSimian are designed to work alongside humans. "These robots were specifically developed to go where humans could not, so we have not addressed the many technical and safety issues that come with working side-by-side with people."
The DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals will be held in Pomona, California in June 2015. The contestant robots will be required to drive a car, navigate an obstacle course, clear debris from a door, cut a hole in a wall, operate a valve, and perform other tasks, including one that will not be revealed beforehand.
Source: JPL
Source: http://www.gizmag.com/robosimian-surrogate-jpl-darpa-robotics-challenge/35404/
/ About us
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”.
/ Follow us at:
/ Contact:
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
LinkedIn
LiveJournal
Google
Twitter
Facebook
Я.ру
ВКонтакте
Mail.ru