WASHINGTON — We’re not far off from the point when humanoid robots will be advanced enough to respond to dangerous disasters, either natural or man-made, so humans don’t have to risk their own lives.
According to Brian Lattimer, associate professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, that point is about five to 10 years away.
Lattimer was with his students in California for the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Robotics Challenge, which wrapped up over the weekend. The robotics challenge was a worldwide competition that challenged teams to build prototype humanoid robots capable of dealing with disasters.
His team’s robot is ESCHER — “a full-size humanoid robot,” Lattimer says.
ESCHER stands for Electric Series Compliant Humanoid for Emergency Response, and it’s the fourth humanoid prototype Lattimer and his team have built at Tech.
Lattimer says his students had some victories and some disappointments during the competition, but they’re excited to be able to continue working on their robot that stands about 5 feet-10 inches, weighs 165 pounds and is designed to have human range of motion.
“There still needs to be quite a bit of work done with robotics,” Lattimer says.
Over the next three years, he and his team will be further developing ESCHER’s software so that the robot will be able to walk through ships and help sailors complete their watches.
“If there’s a damage-control event, a fire or a pipe leak, we would send the robot in ahead of the person to evaluate the conditions and put out the fire or secure the valves and things like that,” Lattimer says.
In November, Lattimer’s team worked with the Office of Naval Research and did a demonstration onboard a ship, using a robot prototype before this current version named THOR. The team had the robot walk on a buckled deck and put out a fire.
Lattimer says there are many applications he’s looking at outside of humanoid robots performing disaster response. He says one area is using robots to support an aging population. For example, when an elderly person is no longer capable of doing a strenuous job, the robots can perform that task.
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