Meet RoboSimian, a Search and Rescue Robot that can Traverse any Terrain

RoboSimian may be helping humans in future disaster recovery missions (via JPL-CalTech)

DARPA held a Robotics Challenge in late December and this beautiful Spider-like robot, shown above and created by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), competed. It is called the RoboSimian and is meant to aid humans in disaster recovery operations. While many teams have been working on robots to aid recovery teams, JPLhas taken its design to the next level – that is actually making something that may work in the real world.

A video of the RoboSimian demonstrating its capabilities to aggrandizing music can be seen at Space.com here (or below): http://www.space.com/24274-robosimian-four-footed-robot-competes-at-darpa-challenge-video.html

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Meet RoboSimian, a Search and Rescue Robot that can Traverse any Terrain

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This robot is meant to mimic primate motions to move with agility through rough terrain. Its four 'arms' can act as arms, or legs and can sprout fingers and opposable thumbs to complete tasks like opening doors and closing water valves. It also has wheels and can sit upright and lift its legs to make use of its wheels and coast along flat terrain. It can make use of all these features to move in many ways and in any direction depending on the situation. This makes it an awesome search and rescue robot since it will need to adapt to any situation, but also needs strength in order to push, pull, and move debris.

While the construction of the limbs, hands, and wheels of this robot have been developed with ultimate versatility and agility in mind, RoboSimian has also been engineered for maximum perceptibility as it is able to make use of seven cameras to aid in searching, and gaining as much visual data as possible to make decisions about how to move around in its environment.

The RoboSimian is also meant to be monitored by a crew, which could prove useful in actual search and rescue missions where human assisted tasks may be necessary.

Currently, RoboSimian can complete a lot of complicated tasks which makes it a really impressive robot. While just about any robot can move around on flat land these days, the RoboSimian plowed its way through a pile of cinder blocks, simulated stairs, and moved planks and rubble out of its path to continue making its way through rough terrain. The robot even turned a pipe valve and opened doors. In addition to some of these featured tasks, the robot is supposed to be able to anchor itself to help complete tasks that require a bit more force and power.

Overall, I'm really impressed. Rescue robots have come a long way since the days where they used to stumble over door frames and crash into walls repeatedly. Of course, the RoboSimian moves very slowly at the moment, but this is part of the reason  why it is so reliable. The algorithim is meant to allow it to deliberate actions before making them to avoid mistakes, which can be costly in an emergency situation. Hence, the RoboSimian follows the 'slow and steady wins the race' adage. Perhaps this robot will be aiding search and rescue teams in the near future, although we all hope we'll have no need for them in our lifetimes.

C

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