Ok, now the fun starts...
Today was Move-in Day at the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, or as I like to think of it, the World's Greatest Science Fair For Adults.
I wrote yesterday that the Garage is supposed to be a "camera free" zone. I'll just say that I saw an awful lot of cell phones being held up, including some suspiciously large ones on tripods. I'm guessing that the "Camera Free" rule might be history.
I took my first walk-through today at 12:30PM. There was the expected flurry of activity, but not the complete chaos of say, the set-up at your average Trade Show (yes I am talking about you, SemiCon West). Not really much to see at that point.
My next pass through was at about 7:15PM. Dozens of competitors were huddled in front of the WPI-CMU space, watching their Atlas Robot practice-negotiate a debris pile (this will be one of the events). In this case, the "Debris Pile" is a bunch of concrete blocks in some disarray. You'd be nervous about a two-year old or your 80-year old Grandmother walking over them. The WPI robot did quite well until it stepped back onto the concrete floor, with the back of its foot on an intentionally-placed 2X4. The robot lost its balance and suddenly collapsed; possibly because an Operator tripped a remote EMO (that is, an "Emergency Off" Kill Switch). All of the Competitors have a remote EMO, and one of the Contest Requirements is that they demonstrate that it's functional. They all also have some sort of support device; that is, a portable Boom or Gantry that can keep the robot from hitting the floor if something goes haywire during testing, and the RPI people had theirs in place. These aren't allowed in the Competition, but they're an essential piece of support equipment.
I took another pass-through at 8:30 PM and the crowd in the Garage had thinned out considerably by then.
In order, from West-to-east in the Garage, here are the teams:
Team Robots (Japan) No one home. Looks like a very light-weight Robot.
Team NEDD-JSK (Japan)
Team SNU (Japan) Another light one
Team HRP2-Tokyo (Japan)
Team Thor (USA) Another light one
Team NEDD-Hydra (Japan)
Team KAIST (???) Another light one
Team AIST-NEDD (Japan)
Team UNLV (USA) Another light one
Team AERO (USA) Another light one
ATLAS Support (Boston Dynamics, USA) Not competing, but their robots are in competition used by other teams. The Atlas Robots are Electro-hydaulic, meaning most of the hard-working joints (like hips and knees) use hydraulic pistons, like a piece of earth-moving equipment.
Team GRIT (USA)
Built on a shoestring and weighing in at remarkable 72 Lbs. That's about 1/5th of the weight of an Atlas.
Team IHMC (USA)
Ok Now we're getting into the Big heavy robots...
Nice furniture BTW, two couches and a Lazy Boy, right out front. Skimping on the Hotel budget, or just ready for some all-nighters?
Team RoboSimian (USA)
Not sure how a four-legged robot will fare in this competition.
Team Tartan Rescue (USA)
Not visible, due to being strategically placed behind some plywood obstacles. I was informed that they were dealing with Encoder problems in one of the arms.
Team MIT (USA)
MIT is using one of Boston Dynamic's Atlas Robots. Those things are big! Not sure how they'll fit in a vehicle, but apparently they do.
Team Valor (USA)
No one home.
Team Trooper (USA)
Another Atlas entry
Team Walkman (Italy)
Team VIGIR (USA) Looked like another Atlas
Team WPI-CMU
Another Atlas Robot. They probably had the best paint job of any of the Atlases.
Team Hector (Germany)
Very short, and apparently light-weight robot, maybe 4 feet tall.
Team HKU (Hong Kong) Another Atlas.
Team NIMBRO Rescue (Germany)
That's all for today. Tomorrow I should be able to post pictures.
Once again, I hope you've found this a worthwhile read.
-Dave