DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Final
I was one of the Team HKU members participating in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Final held in June 2015 at Pomona, California, United States. During the competition, I was the operator of Team HKU's Robot.
Team HKU has used the robot known as “Atlas” for this competition. Atlas is a high mobility and humanoid robot. It can walk bi-pedally leaving the upper limbs free to lift, carry and manipulate the environment. Atlas’ articulated and sensate hands would enable it to use tools that are designed for human use. Atlas has 24 hydraulically-actuated and 6 electric motors; 30 degrees of freedom in total, two hands, arms, legs, feet and a torso.
During the competition, I was very much involved in the manipulation areas, I worked on Robot Kinematics and Continuous Mathematics Calculation based on the D-H parameters to improve Atlas manipulation control and provide estimation & object recognition to identify and locate object. This basement program enabled Atlas to perform several manipulation tasks such as Valve Turning, Wall Cutting and Pick and Place. In those tasks, I programmed the Atlas to identify the objects (Valve, Wall, Drill) and then to pick it up or move/cut it as per the requirements imposed by the authorities. All perceptions and motion planning are auto-generated by the pre-formatted program. Operator was only required to give supervisory command to the robot to adjust the speed or due to safety reason.
The DRC is a competition of robot systems and software teams eyeing to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters. The competition was designed to be extremely difficult. Participating teams, representing some of the most advanced robotics research and development organizations in the world, are working within a very short timeline to develop the hardware, software, sensors, and human-machine control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete a series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA to test their robots’ reaction to disaster.
The DRC Finals competition required the participating robotics teams and their robots to complete eight difficult tasks related to disaster response including driving alone, walking through rubble, tripping circuit breakers, turning valves and climbing stairs. The participants come from all around the world including the United States of America, Japan, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea and Hong Kong.
The main goal of the DRC Finals competition was to accelerate progress in robotics and hasten the day when robots have sufficient dexterity and robustness to enter areas that are too dangerous/unsafe for humans and mitigate the impacts of natural or man-made disasters.
Technologies resulting from the DRC will transform the field of robotics and catapult forward development of robots featuring task-level autonomy that can operate in the hazardous, degraded conditions common in disaster zones.
DRC is also a good time to explore the latest technologies in the worlds. There are many company and research centre showed their latest product and research outcome in the exhibition. Here are some of the examples:-
SRI Walking Robot NASA Valkyrie
Victual Control Physical Robot
Gallery
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