Darpa is seeking to make robots more mobile, and more effective on the battlefield. Robots have already saved thousands of lives, but mobility and functionality of the bots require some human or animal intervention, see the open of the film "The Hurt Locker" for an example of a robot failing to disarm a bomb. Darpa's Maximum Mobility and Manipulation (M3) program is being designed to take robotic design and fabrication to a whole new, modern level.
Four different parallel tracks are set to help provide engineers with new, better, and fast robotic capabilities. They are going to be working with multiple universities to cover the four tracks; Design tools, fabrication methodologies, control methods, and technology demonstration prototypes.
See more about M3 and a list of the school working in the program at the Darpa site.
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pic via Darpa