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NASA's Valkyrie robot is a 'superhero' designed to save you from disasters


Matsuda

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NASA has created a robot for DARPA's upcoming Robotics Challenge Trials. The Valkyrie is a six-foot two humanoid machine with detachable arms, sonar sensors, mounted cameras, and a glowing, Tony Stark-esque circle in the middle of its chest, that the space agency says is mobile and dexterous enough to enter disaster zones to provide search and rescue functions.

Project and group lead for NASA JSC's Dextrous Robotics Lab, Nicolaus Radford, tellsIEEE Spectrum that Valkyrie was designed specifically for the DARPA competition. Strong legs mean the robot's capable of moving around "degraded environments" typical of disaster-stricken areas, and cameras mounted on its head, body, forearms, knees, and feet, allow it to provide visual information back to its handlers. Extra data can be provided by the robot's sonar and LIDAR units. Unlike DARPA's own Atlas robot, Valkyrie doesn't require a tether, running instead on a 2kWh battery stored on the machine's back.

Valkyrie builds on the space agency's previous humanoid robot, Robonaut, currently in orbit around the Earth in the International Space Station. Robonaut, built to work in zero-gravity environments, was the size and shape of a bulky humanoid torso. Valkyrie's powerful legs and lighter frame make it better adapted for operating on Earth, and a modular construction means the robot's arms can be switched by humans "in a matter of minutes."

In addition to the robot's practical uses, Radford explains how his team was focused on creating an "awesome" looking machine. Important in that design was a more humanoid aesthetic than most of NASA's competitors in the DARPA challenge. Valkyrie looks, moves, and even dresses like a human, wearing layers of fabric over its metal limbs. The fabric helps protect Valkyrie from falls, but Radford explains another reason for its material outerwear. "Our robot is soft. If you brush against it while you're working, you don't want to feel this cold, hard metal. You want it to feel natural, like you're working next to another human being."

NASA previously funded another "Valkyrie" project: a "cryobot" built by Stone Aerospaceto use a laser to cut through Alaskan glacier ice ahead of a mooted mission to Jupiter's moon Europa. This new Valkyrie's duties are earthbound for now, to conform to DARPA Robotics Challenge guidelines, but Radford says NASA's aim is Mars, and than "these robots will start preparing the way for the human explorers."

First, though, Valkyrie has to perform against the DARPA Challenge's other robots on December 20th. Impressively, Valkyrie was designed and built by NASA in only nine months, two weeks of which were lost to the US goverment shutdown. 55 people worked in shifts to keep the "Bunker" in which it was created open from 7am to 5am. Despite the "insane" build time, Radford is confident Valkyrie will be able to perform the potentially life-saving actions DARPA are demanding, describing his team's creation as a "superhero." That tag might also explain Valkyrie's Iron Man-style chest light. As Radford says, "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing cool."





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gee i wonder if it is weaponized yet and actively seeking victims..i am sure "someone" has proof of that already :lol:

DARPA is a weaponized robots research facility, I don't have to assume that these things can very well be weaponized, it's a fact that they can be outfitted with weaponry but it doesn't mean they will be. Unless DARPA is now in the saving lives business I wouldn't imagine that the United States government which lovingly spies on even you is creating these robots because we are so loved by the government. But it wouldn't surprise me if they eventually rolled out a whole swath of "house robotic assistants" someday in the future to get people acclimated to them. I know, that sounds all too familiar, you have probably seen a fictionalized version of that in the movie iRobot.

Learn to question things, for example, how likely is it that the military funded DARPA is using these robots for sole the purpose of saving lives? If you believe that I have some ocean front property in Arizona for sale and if you buy that, I'll throw the Golden Gate in for free (partially quoting George Strait). I personally refuse to be gullible and believe everything I hear from sources that may not understand the larger picture. There was a time when I blindly believed the official stories from the government but after they lie too much, a person has to wonder if they have some other motives in mind. I'm sick of their lies, and quite frankly it makes more sense what people like Alex Jones says than what the known lying USA government says.

Question known liars.

DARPA: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

Edited by Ambrocious
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sorry ambro..but i do not even look t your posts so why would you ever expect me to actually read them? no reply required as this is a rhetorical post

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Get John Conner,its the rise of the machines.I can easily imagine these on a battlefield with drones flying overhead.He keeps saying very strong and powerful robot.I guess they could easily injure an unarmed person. :s

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Coincidentally it looks alot like the evil empire's storm troopers in 'Star Wars'.

They were hell-bent on killing non-stop in those movies.

BUT:

This thing moves VERY slowly and remains tethered.

Not very impressive IMO, and the guy yaks too much while his 'superhero robot' does...nothing.

Meh.

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Coincidentally it looks alot like the evil empire's storm troopers in 'Star Wars'.

They were hell-bent on killing non-stop in those movies.

BUT:

This thing moves VERY slowly and remains tethered.

Not very impressive IMO, and the guy yaks too much while his 'superhero robot' does...nothing.

Meh.

Perhaps some of these move faster:

DARPA “Emergency Response” Robot Runs Faster Than Usain Bolt

Paul Joseph Watson

Infowars.com

Thursday, September 6, 2012

One of the robots under development by DARPA for the purpose of “emergency response” and humanitarian missions has beaten the human world speed record set in 2009 by athlete Usain Bolt.

“The Defense Advanced Research Project’s (DARPA) Cheetah managed to reach 28.3 mph, said the agency on Sept. 5. The speed is a little faster than the fastest human, Usain Bolt, who set the human world speed record when he reached a peak speed of 27.78 mph in 2009 during a100 meter sprint. The Cheetah robot had already attained the record as the fastest robot on earth when it clocked in 18 Mph earlier in its development,” reports Government Security News.

Cheetah’s advantage versus other robots when it comes to emergency response, humanitarian missions and “other defense missions,” is that it legs enable it to handle difficult terrain, unlike wheeled and tracked robots.

Cheetah was able to beat its previous speed record with the aid of improved control algorithms and a more powerful pump. Engineers plan to test a prototype Cheetah on real terrain next year.

Boston Dynamics Inc. is also working on a separate project for DARPA to produce humanoid robots that can act intelligently without supervision.

Last month, the Department of Defense announced that “The robotic platforms will be humanoid, consisting of two legs, a torso, two arms with hands, a sensor head and on board computing.” The robots are set to be ready by 2014, states the contract.

Like the Cheetah, the humanoid robots will be used to “conduct humanitarian, disaster relief and related operations” and will also be able to use basic and diverse tools.

Boston Dynamics has enjoyed a long working relationship with DARPA, during which time it has developed the rather frightening BigDog. This hydraulic quadruped robot can carry up to 340lb load, meaning it can be effectively weaponised, and recovers its balance even after sliding on ice and snow:

The company also developed RiSE, a robot that climbs vertical terrain such as walls, trees and fences, using feet with micro-claws to climb on textured surfaces:

In addition to a host of other smaller robots, Boston Dynamics is also developing PETMAN, a robot that simulates human physiology and balances itself as it walks, squats and does calisthenics:

Although Cheetah and other robots being developed under the auspices of DARPA are ostensibly for humanitarian missions, the Pentagon has also taken steps towards developing androids for aggressive operations.

In 2008, the Pentagon issued a request to contractors to develop a “Multi-Robot Pursuit System” designed to search for, detect and track “non-cooperative” humans in “pursuit/evasion scenarios”.

Paul Marks at the New Scientist pointed out such proposals are somewhat concerning, because they inevitably will be adapted for domestic purposes such as crowd control.

“…how long before we see packs of droids hunting down pesky demonstrators with paralysing weapons? Or could the packs even be lethally armed?” Marks asks.

Marks interviewed Steve Wright, an expert on police and military technologies, from Leeds Metropolitan University, who commented:

Indeed, noted as PHASE III on the Pentagon proposal was the desire to have the robots developed to “intelligently and autonomously search”.

“The giveaway here is the phrase ‘a non-cooperative human subject’.

What we have here are the beginnings of something designed to enable robots to hunt down humans like a pack of dogs. Once the software is perfected we can reasonably anticipate that they will become autonomous and become armed.

We can also expect such systems to be equipped with human detection and tracking devices including sensors which detect human breath and the radio waves associated with a human heart beat. These are technologies already developed.”

Top robotics expert, Noel Sharkey, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at the University of Sheffield, haspreviously warned that the world may be sleepwalking into a potentially lethal technocracy and has called for safeguards on such technology to be put into place.

In 2008, Professor Sharkey told listeners of the Alex Jones show:

The professor also warned that such autonomous weapons could easily be used in the future by law enforcement officials in cites, pointing out that South Korean authorities are already planning to have a fully armed autonomous robot police force in their cities.

“If you have an autonomous robot then it’s going to make decisions who to kill, when to kill and where to kill them. The scary thing is that the reason this has to happen is because of mission complexity and also so that when there’s a problem with communications you can send a robot in with no communication and it will decide who to kill, and that is really worrying to me.”

Source: Infowars

Edited by Ambrocious
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sorry ambro..but i do not even look t your posts so why would you ever expect me to actually read them? no reply required as this is a rhetorical post

Thats probably why you hate me and Alex so much, you don't even read to see if it's real or anything, you just assume instantaneously. Some of the worlds biggest wars have been fought out of ignorance and non-communication. The reason I'm still trying to get threw to you is because I got a feeling you are not a bad person. No other reason am I trying to show you these things.

Edited by Ambrocious
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sorry ambro..but i do not even look t your posts so why would you ever expect me to actually read them? no reply required as this is a rhetorical post

Thats probably why you hate me and Alex so much, you don't even read to see if it's real or anything, you just assume instantaneously. Some of the worlds biggest wars have been fought out of ignorance and non-communication. The reason I'm still trying to get threw to you is because I got a feeling you are not a bad person. No other reason am I trying to show you these things.

+1 Information is survival - even if you might possibly find fault, or disagree, ( we can agreee to disagree respectfully)

its open conversation that we desperately protect and defend.

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