RoboSimian Beats Out Surrogate for JPL’s DRC Finals Spot

We were very impressed with the creative design and solid performance that JPL’s RoboSimian demonstrated last year at the DRC Trials. But although RoboSimian was able to swing from trees and topple human society much more effectively than previous models, it seems that JPL itself wasn’t entirely sold on the optimalness (is that a word?) of its own design: immediately after the trials ended, they started building a new (and slightly more traditional) robot called Surrogate. Now, after six months of testing, the results are in.

It’s good news for RoboSimian: it gets to keep the top spot and will go to the DRC Finals next year. If Surrogate looks sort of like it’s made out of three of RoboSimian’s leg-arms all stuck together, that’s because it was made out of three of RoboSimian’s leg-arms all stuck together, plus a pair of Robotiq hands, a sensor head, and tracked base.

Photo: NASA JPL

Surrogate isn’t very humanoid looking, but you may say it’s more humanoid than RoboSimian is, with its flexible spine, arms, and upright posture. It’s about 1.4 meters tall, weighs just over 90 kilograms, and is much better suited for manipulation tasks, especially ones that require reach. For some DRC tasks, this might make it better than RoboSimian, but the tracks mean that it can’t negotiate rubble, climb ladders, or drive a vehicle without some seriously creative gymnastic feats. Also, Surrogate’s sensors are concentrated in its head, whereas RoboSimian has sensors all over the place, like its sides and belly.

“It comes down to the fact that Surrogate is a better manipulation platform and faster on benign surfaces, but RoboSimian is an all-around solution, and we expect that the all-around solution is going to be more competitive in this case,” says JPL’s Brett Kennedy. “[But] we’ll continue to use it as an example of how we can take RoboSimian limbs and reconfigure them into other platforms.”

JPL has released some videos demonstrating Surrogate’s navigation and manipulation capabilities. The two vids below show the robot operating two kinds of valve.

Source: www.spectrum.ieee.org