ATLAS Humanoid Revealed

DARPA recently announced the seven “Track B” finalists in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).  These teams competed against others in the field to make best use of a virtual robot using the open-source DRC Simulator.  This week, the winning teams were presented with the real thing: a 2-meter tall, 150 kg humanoid robot known as ATLAS.

ATLAS sports 28 hydraulically actuators, powered by an onboard pump; a head bristling with sensors ranging from LIDAR to stereo vision, and of course the human complement of legs, arms, and hands.

ATLAS is quite possibly the most advanced humanoid robot ever built, and for the rest of 2013, these teams will be working to write the most advanced robot control software ever.  They will compete in the real world, along with six “Track A” teams each with their own custom robot, at a public competition in Homestead, Florida this December.  Robots will face a series of challenging tasks like those faced in a disaster response situation.  With the world-class teams and advanced hardware coming to this competition, we can expect to see some pretty amazing advances in robotics this year.

Check out our previous posts on the DRC, and see DARPA’s press release for more details.