DARPA wants Avatar-esque Robot Surrogates
Who says Avatar wasn’t good scifi? DARPA, of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, the government group dedicated to strange, far fetched science ideas that have a spooky record of becoming realized, wants robotic surrogates.
Proposed in DARPA’s 2013 budget is $7 million for what they refer to as the “Avatar” project, a program that would aim to "develop interfaces and algorithms to enable a soldier to effectively partner with a semi-autonomous bi-pedal machine and allow it to act as the soldier’s surrogate." Basically, think terminator robots controlled by humans. Scared yet?
As out there as this may seem, this dream might actually be within reach. If you ignore walking, which is really, really hard for a robot to do well, then most of the technologies necessary are on the verge of reality. Basically all that would be needed are virtual reality goggles, some method to control the bot easily, and a high speed data connection. All of which are completely feasible.
This project would build on a program to make robots have a “pet” relation to soldiers, robots that would follow commands and defend its owner. Both of these projects rely on strong, well-coded AI designed to let the robot react on its own before receiving input from the pilot/owner.
Of course, with only $7 million put into the project, this feels like it is more an exploratory exercise than a true program. Avatar, for example, cost $250 million to produce, and fighter plane development frequently runs into the billions. And, of course, all we have are a few lines of explanation--not much to go on.
Still, I’ve been dreaming of telepresence robotics since I was a kid. It’s always been an unrealized dream to be able to switch places with the flip of a switch. This is a step in the right direction.
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