Team KAIST’s Flexible Robot Takes Top Prize at DARPA Robotics Challenge
Photo: AUVSI.
Korea’s KAIST team wasn’t in the top rankings going into the final day of competition at DARPA's Robotics Challenge in Pomona, California, but its multi-jointed DRC-HUBO robot was able to complete all eight tasks in just under 45 minutes, vaulting it into first place and earning it a $2 million check.
KAIST had come in sixth on the first day of the competition. At that time, based on the rankings it wasn’t even in the top tier of teams, which ran the day prior. However, the team dispatched the competition’s tasks so speedily that it sewed up the competition before the favorites even got to run.
The team is composed of the Rainbow Co. and KAIST, the former Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, a public research university in South Korea.
DRC-HUBO, which stands for humanoid robot, has legs that can fold so the robot can then move on wheels, which made it faster as it moved through the mock disaster site carrying out the various tasks. When it needed to be taller to complete a task, such as the final task of climbing the stairs, it could just stand up and walk.
On the first day of competition, KAIST had frozen and then managed to knock off its communications pack, requiring a restart, which cost the team time. It still completed seven of the eight tasks and ended up in sixth place. It didn’t encounter such troubles on day two, moving smoothly through the tasks, which included driving a vehicle, exiting it, opening a door, closing a valve, drilling through a wall, a surprise task (in the last round, relocating an electrical plug), negotiating a rubble pile and climbing stairs.
After bumping Thursday’s winning team off the top of the roster, KAIST was followed in the top standings by Team IHMC Robotics. The Pensacola, Florida-based Institute for Human and Machine Cognition was also the second-place finisher at the first robotic trials, held at the end of 2013 in Florida. The team takes home $1 million.
IHMC, using a DARPA-supplied Atlas robot, also completed all eight tasks, although it took six minutes longer than KAIST. Team IHMC had finished fourth on the first day, racking up seven points in just over 56 minutes.
After its more successful Saturday run, the IHMC robot — dubbed Running Man —did a little victory wave from the top of the stairs before falling over, although it didn’t fall before it got its full allotment of eight points.
“We were showing off. People liked it,” said the team’s Nicolas Eyssette of the post-victory crash.
Eyssette said the team didn’t do much different on day two, just fixed a minor bug and tried to be a little more stable after operator error caused a fall on the first day, one of two it experienced.
“We didn’t make the mistake like we did yesterday, trying to go to fast,” he said. “We got really lucky, I guess, also.”
Team Tartan Rescue’s CHIMP robot was the fan favorite on the first day of the competition, becoming the only robot in the finals to be able to pick itself up after a fall.
The robot seemed eager to go in its final run, which took place at the end of the day, crashing into a barrier as it drove up in its cart to begin the tasks. After that, CHIMP seemed to lose steam and was only able to complete five tasks in the allotted hour. Still, its powerhouse turn on the opening day was enough to keep it in third place, earning it $500,000.
Team NimbRo Rescue, the second-place finisher, fared even worse on the first day, experiencing a problem before it even got out of the cart. The robot completed all but one task in a relatively blistering 34 minutes on the first day, but ran out of time on its final run, dropping to fourth overall and having to finally give up as it struggled in the rubble pile. It ended up in fourth place.
The competition featured plenty of robotic pratfalls, which drew gasps from the crowd, but also had three teams that were able to complete all eight tasks, and four more that were able to finish seven.
“It’s been an astounding two days,” said DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar. “Every single stumble we felt, it broke our hearts. Every success caused our spirits to soar.”
Gill Pratt, the program manager for the competition, said researchers are only in the beginning of what needs to be done in the field of robotics.
“What we have done is shown the world a little bit, just a tiny bit, of what is possible,” he said. “There’s so much more work to be done, I’m sure that all of you are doing to do a whole lot more of it in years to come, and you will remember this day as the beginning … and I cannot wait to see the work you do in the future,” Pratt said.
Pratt’s work at DARPA is nearly over, however. He revealed at a Thursday night media briefing that he is moving onto another organization, which he was not at liberty to name.
But for today, Pratt focused on the DARPA Robotics Challenge’s place in history.
“What have we done today? Have we finished the work to be done in robotics? No. Are we in the middle of the work to be done in robotics? No. Have we perhaps begun the work to be done in robotics? Yes. And we have begun it in, I think, an extraordinarily good way,” he said.
To read Unmanned Systems' roundup of day one of the competition, click here.
