Thames & Kosmos DLX, Experiment Manual, Page: 45 / 132

Almost Olympic:
Robot Octathlon
Researchers, engineers, and inventors
are always trying to improve robots.
But what’s the best way to do that?
Some researchers have come up with the
idea of having an octathlon for service robots, something like a
decathlon at the Olympics.
The idea behind it is that competitions provide an incentive to do better.
And when you specify all the things that the robots should be able to
do, it helps people understand how to improve them.
For rescue robots, which are a special type of service robot, this offers
a way to test them on the accidents and catastrophes they might have
to respond to in the future. The experts came up with a list of eight
tasks that robots will have to be able to handle in order to be fit for
emergencies.
These are the eight challenges of the robot octathlon:
It may sound easy, but robots have to be able to master all of these
things in emergency situations. It’s still a little beyond the abilities of
today’s robots.
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2
3
4
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
5
6
7
8
Drive a vehicle over various obstacles
Drive across difficult, uneven terrain
Climb up a ladder with seven rungs
Clear away light objects
Open doors
Drill through a light construction wall with a precision drill
Close valves such as water taps
Unroll a water hose from a hose reel
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43
Can Robots Push and Crawl?