The What, Why, How, Who and When of the DARPA Robotics Challenge

 DARPA Robotics Challenge  

According to Drexel University's Paul Oh, the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) will be the most disruptive and transformational event of this decade, impacting everything from agriculture to manufacturing. In a lecture recorded in Korea, Oh discusses the DRC, and how his team, DRC-Hubo is competing.

The presenation above by Profesor Paul Oh Team Lead for DRC-Hubo, at Drexel University Mechanical Engineering and Director, Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab about the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) given for the Robotics Winter School (RoSEC) at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.

The primary goal of the DRC is to develop ground robotic capabilities to execute complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments such as the nuclear disaster site at Fukishima.

The program will focus on robots that can use available human tools, ranging from hand tools to vehicles. The program aims to advance the key robotic technologies of supervised autonomy, mounted mobility, dismounted mobility, dexterity, strength, and platform endurance.

According to Oh, the DRC will be the most disruptive and transformational event of this decade, impacting everything from agriculture to manufacturing.

Oh is taking part in the Challenge as leader of the DRC-Hubo team. Hubo is a complete full-size humanoid robot. Its form and function are suited for all eight events of the DRC. 

DRC-Hubo will be a version with hardware retrofits and algorithms for autonomy. Seven Hubos exist at Drexel University (lead PI) and are immediately available for the DRC.

Professor Oh is an ASME Fellow and Associate Department Head at Drexel's Mechanical Engineering Department. He received mechanical engineering degrees from McGill (B.Eng 1989), Seoul National (M.Sc 1992), and Columbia (PhD 1999). Honors include faculty fellowships at NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (2002), Naval Research Lab (2003), the NSF CAREER award (2004), the SAE Ralph Teetor Award for Engineering Education Excellence (2005) and was named a Boeing Welliver Fellow (2006). He is the Director of the Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab and also the Founding Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Aerial Robotics and UAVs.

We also have to thank Professor Oh for one of the best presentation slides ever (at least from our perspective!)

SOURCE  Jaemi Hubo

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