Saturday, December 21, 2013

Root for the MIT DARPA Robotics Challenge team today

Root for the MIT Robotics team
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2nd Place MIT team uses Boston Dynamics Atlas
Boston Dynamics Atlas 
ATLAS looks suspiciously like Arnold Schwarzenegger's innards in Terminator. Is there a time machine and AI chip involved?

now part of the Google empire. Looks like Google has bet on the field.

BBC News - Google's Schaft robot wins Darpa rescue challenge

Why did Google acquire Boston Dynamics and other robot companies? | Digital Trends

This year alone, Google has acquired no fewer than eight robotics firms, including Industrial Perception, Redwood Robotics, Meka, Schaft, Holomni, plus the startups Bot & Dolly and Autofuss. And Google is committing brainpower too: In addition to putting former Android chief Andy Rubin in charge of robotics, earlier this year Google hired machine learning expert Geoffrey Hinton, and last year brought famed inventor and AI advocate Ray Kurzweil on board.

 Google seeks to commercialize humanoid robots - Computerworld

Computerworld - HOMESTEAD, Fla. -- The first sign that Google now owns robotics heavyweight Boston Dynamics was when the Google bus rolled into the DARPA Robotics Challenge to offer engineers a place to kick back and take a nap.

Officials at Google, a company known for offering extravagant perks like meditation pods and beach volleyball courts to employees, showed up at the Homestead Miami Speedway in southern Florida today to show support for their new team and to get a look at the Atlas robot, built by Boston Dynamics, and one of the stars of the challenge.

The DARPA challenges is a great place for Andy Rubin, Google's robotics projects lead and the former head of Android, to get a good look at the third-generation Atlas.

On Friday and Saturday, 16 teams, including participants from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Virginia Tech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are vying to create the best software to enable their robot to turn valves, use human tools, climb a ladder and even drive a car.

MIT Beavers hang tough with team SHAFT on day one

DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials: What We Learned on Day 1(Friday 12/20) - IEEE Spectrum
At the end of day one, the score has Japanese team SCHAFT with 18 out of a possible 20 points after five events, which is alarmingly close to flawless. MIT is in second place with 12, and no other teams are in double digits yet. This is not entirely a surprise, since SCHAFT posted video of themselves completing every single task before the competition even started. It's easy to tell that the practice has paid off, as SCHAFT has so far blown through ever task rapidly and confidently. They've got three more events to do tomorrow, and arguably, they're the three hardest: ladder climbing, terrain navigation, and driving.

MIT Beavers score Only 4 points on day 2 - did Atlas shrug, or was it software bug.

Team SCHAFT Sticks It to Competition, Wins DARPA Robotics Challenge
After two days of competition, MIT came in 4th:
  1. Tokyo's team SCHAFT has won the DARPA Robotics Challenge in Miami. With 27 out of a possible 32 points in eight challenges, SCHAFT pulled out a decisive victory. 
  2. IHMC Robotics (20 points), 
  3. Tartan Rescue (18 points), 
  4. MIT (16 points) and 
  5. Robosimian (14 points) 
round out the top five. We can't wait for the final competition to come in 2014 with $2M at stake.
Science and Technology: Eight Teams Earn DARPA Funds for 2014 Robotics Finals

SCHAFT : DARPA Robotics Challenge 8 Tasks + Special Walking
 
Team from Japan Clinches Gold at the Robot Olympics
 
Robot Funded by Google Dominated DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials 2013

 

#DARPADRC

Twitter news feed
Twitter Pictures from competition

MIT | DRC Trials



▶ Meet DRC Team MIT - YouTube

  •  Seth Teller (team lead), Russ Tedrake (co-lead)
  • Ø  Bryt Bradley (procurement & logistics), 
  • Ø  Dehann Fourie (state estimation), 
  • Ø  Mark Pearrow (software, test infrastructure), 
  • Ø  Matt DiCicco (testing & validation), 
  • Ø  Robin Deits (interface, planning), 
  • Ø  Toby Schneider (networking), 
  • Ø  Julie Shah, Karl Iagnemma (co-I's) 
  •  Maurice Fallon (perception and infrastructure lead), 
  • Ø  Matt Antone (perception), 
  • Ø  Pat Marion (infrastructure, perception), 
  • Ø  Peter (Kuan-Ting) Yu (perception), 
  • Ø  Steve Proulx (safety, test infrastructure), 
  •  Scott Kuindersma (planning and control lead), 
  • Ø  Andrés Valenzuela (planning & control), 
  • Ø  Claudia Perez D'Arpino (planning), 
  • Ø  Hongkai Dai (planning & control), 
  • Ø  Michael Posa (planning & control), 
  • Ø  Twan Koolen (planning & control), 
  •  Sisir Karumanchi (manipulation lead)

Team MIT completes first hurdle in DARPA Robotics Challenge - MIT News Office
A team from MIT has advanced to the next stage of the prestigious DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a competition sponsored by the Department of Defense to promote innovation in robotics technology for disaster-response operations. The MIT team beat out more than one hundred other teams in the first stage of the competition — the Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC) — to gain one of seven prized spots in the next stage of the competition, slated for December.

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