14 DAY TRIAL // After more than a year working in secret, engineers with the NASA Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas have finally unveiled their robotic design for the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC). Their machine is called Valkyrie, and is designated as R5.
Expert engineer Nicolaus Radford was the leader of the team that developed this beautiful robot. The machine is nearly 1.9 meters (6.2 feet) tall, weighs around 125 kilograms (275.6 pounds), and boasts no less than 44 degrees of freedom, which means that it is very mobile, IEEE Spectrum reports.
Valkyrie was developed with support from scientists at the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, with funds provided by the state of Texas. The team is convinced that their machine will be able to face the challenges imposed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this year.
Some of these challenges include climbing a ladder, walking or otherwise navigating difficult terrain, using tools, and driving. DARPA is very interested in promoting the development of reliable robots that are able to fulfill human tasks without special setups. See a video presentation of Valkyrie above.