DARPA's robot ARM is a two-handed pit crew, almost

If changing a car tire is the ultimate test of dexterity for artificial hands, this new robot by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is certainly on the road to getting there.

 

The one-robot pit crew, featured in a video released by the Pentagon, is part of the US government's Autonomous Robotics Manipulation (ARM) program to develop low-cost artificial hands, The New York Times reported.

 

But the NYT report said that, while DARPA's robot managed to remove the tire, it's still not fully up to par with its human counterpart. DARPA's project aims to develop robots and prosthetic devices for wide use.

 

“We’re almost at the stage where we can put the the nuts back onto the bolts,” it quoted Gill Pratt, a program manager at DARPA as saying.

 

Progress

 

The NYT report noted the limitations on present robotic hands include high price - $10,000 and up - and limited dexterity.

 

But recent progress in technology has made it practical to make such items for less than $3,000.

 

At least two teams from Massachussetts-based iRobot and government’s Sandia National Laboratories are working on the project, using widely available technologies like mobile phone cameras and sensors.

 

Next phase

 

DARPA's plans include designing a robot arm and hand that can search for an improvised explosive device, where the robotic hand can open a zipper on a gym bag and then go through the bag - then recognize objects by touch.

 

It has selected the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Southern California to continue development of high-level software for robot arms.

 

DARPA is also financing the development of low-cost arms and planning to create a joint project to transfer some of its technology advances to develop prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers.

 

Neural interface

 

The NYT also said Johns Hopkins University has received funds to develop a neural interface, while independent lab DEKA Research developed a separate wearable arm now being considered for approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Geoffrey Ling, acting deputy director of Darpa’s Defense Sciences Office, said the robotic arm is close to commercialization.

 

“We have pictures of young men doing rock climbing and one of the patients using chopsticks, which is really extraordinary... It provides a high degree of functionality, and the patients who have it are using it,” he said. — TJD, GMA News