DARPA to take on major new robotics initiative.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Unmanned Technology

* The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a major new initiative to create robotic autonomous manipulators that mimic the human hands, an agency program manager said.

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For the past several decades, the research agency and the robotics community have concentrated their efforts on programming ground robots to get from point A to point B, said Robert Mandelbaum, a DARPA program manager who focuses on robotics and autonomous systems. That challenge has for the most part been tackled, he said.

The autonomous robotics manipulation program will take on a new goal, creating an inexpensive hand-like device that is as adaptable as a human appendage.

"We are looking for software that can span a variety of spaces. We're not looking for any particular application," he said at an Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference.

In other words, for any single task, engineers can design a robotic tool that can do better than a hand. For example, for putting in a screw, they would simply design an arm with a screwdriver on the end.

"We want general adaptability. We want a hand that can do multiple tasks," Mandelbaum said.

There are myriad possible applications including counter-mine, the ability to remove rubble in search-and-rescue missions, weapons support, explosive ordnance disposal, casualty care and prostheses. They are also needed in extreme environments such as space, he said.

As far as prosthetics, there has been progress in pushing World War II-era technology for artificial arms into the modern age. There are now robotic appendages, but for each individual action there must be a command. DARPA wants to create arms and hands that will mimic the human mind's ability to pick up a grape without having to think about what each individual finger must do, he said.

"We would like to give that kind of low-level control to prosthetic arms to really give them the ability to have the same dexterous manipulation as regular people," he said.

Unlike industrial robots with arms that do the same action over and over again, the challenge will be to create arms that can do...