Cute, Cold, Plastic Hugs

The purpose of the Darpa Robotics Challenge wasn't just to make cool robots that could complete dangerous tasks. The DRC was also an opportunity for robotic experts to engage with the community at large. There were an amazing number of interactive booths and exhibits with the express purpose of getting kids interested in science and engineering. It was great to see the looks on their faces when they realized that, yes, they were allowed to touch some of the robots- and that they could even learn how to build and program them. My favorite part of the DRC expo, though, would have to be meeting Pepper the robot. One of the things I found fascinating about Pepper was that I immediately assigned a gender to her- er, I mean, it, to the point where I found myself a little miffed when CNN and the BBC both referred to it as a male. According to Aldebaran, the company that manufactures Pepper, this is actually a very common occurrence. People tend to assign Pepper a different gender based on where they're from. All of this points to some very interesting psychology behind us, as a people, and how we interact with robots. Aldebaran plans to market Pepper as a companion robot- and, in fact, she sold out within the first 24 hours she was on sale in Japan. They have big plans to release Pepper to the Western market as well. It will be fascinating to see how American and European users interact with and utilize Pepper compared to Japanese users. To my mind, Japan is more comfortable with the idea of companion robots. The Japanese language is also easier to synthesize (hence, the success of Vocaloids and similar synthetic pop stars in Japan). American pop culture, by contrast, doesn't seem to have the idea of companion robots as deeply ingrained in its consciousness. Even famous robots in Western media generally serve a purpose- for example, Rosie from the Jetsons is a maid, and R2D2 is an astromechanic droid. I'm curious to see if Pepper will sell out as quickly in the US as she did in Japan.

We Dig Giant Robots

I was one of many nerds whose heartrate spiked when I watched US-based company Megabots challenge the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a duel between their mechs, the Mark 2 and Kuratas. This past Sunday, Suidobashi's CEO responded to the challenge and agreed to fight. He upped the ante, however, by proposing that the mechs battle it out not only with ranged weapons, but in melee combat. Mark 2 and Kuratas are set to duel in approximately a year, although a time and place have not yet been set for their epic battle. Megabots and Suidobashi will both take this time to modify their mechas for combat. I know that I can hardly wait to see the gears fly! In my mind, the Mark 2 may be most likely to come out ahead in the duel. I don't just say that out of a sense of patriotic pride- Megabots, as a company, appears to be geared mainly towards building fighting robots, and it seems that they may have built the Mark 2 in response to Kuratas' unveiling in 2012. The Mark 2 also, currently, has bigger, faster guns, and its mesh screen allows its pilots a wider field of view. At 4.5 meters tall, it's also bigger than the 4-meter tall Kuratas. That said, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. All I know for sure is that I want one.

Our Robot Overlords

This past month I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to go to the Darpa Robotics Challenge in Pasadena, California.  I, like many geeks, love robots.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who wanted a pet Big Dog, for example.  I was really excited to have the opportunity to see the DRC finalists compete, up close and personal!

The DRC was started to stimulate the construction of rescue robots that could perform necessary tasks in environments that were unsafe for humans to enter due to man-made or natural disasters.

I'm honestly not sure what I expected.  I'd been to a greyhound track before (which was prenaturally depressing).  A part of me thought that I would see robots tearing around the track, juggling tasks with all the poise and acumen of professionals.  Another part knew that I should probably modify my science-fiction expectations, and that it was unlikely that the robots would be able to complete their obstacle courses faster than a well-trained human.

What I did not expect was the slow, painful plodding that made up the majority of the DRC.

The robots, on average, took about an hour to complete a course I could have completed in ten minutes...one-handed...while drunk.  The course consisted of several different challenges: 1. Drive a cart, 2. Exit a cart (preferably, without falling over), 3. Open a door, 4. Go through the door 5. Turn off a switch.

That said, the amount of effort and ingenuity that went into these robots is phenomenal.  I had the opportunity to walk through the "garage", the building where the teams that had worked on the robots worked, ate, and slept.  (Well, most of them didn't sleep, until the final day of the DRC).  It's easy to forget that something we do almost unconsciously, something as simple as opening a door, requires an elaborate choreography of neurons and muscles.  Seeing the furor in the garage, the nervous, excited energy of the teams, brought it home to me that this, truly, had taken a monumental effort.

After all, scientific progress rarely proceeds in leaps and bounds.  Rather, it's more often a slow, often painful process, like the progress of a state-of-the-art robot through a door.  We are working on laying the foundations, and that's a necessarily long and complicated process- we have to be sure that our engineering is solid and sound before we proceed to build a house.  The robots on display at the DRC were taking their first wobbling, awkward baby steps towards the future, and I, for one, cannot wait to see where they end up taking us.