Monkey business in the USA

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Carnegie Mellon University’s Engineering Center has unveiled its new Chimp (CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform) robot, which can move across rough terrain. It has arms and legs, allowing it to stand and carry out tasks, but it goes down on all fours and rolls along the ground on rubberised treads (built into its feet and forearms) when it is time to move.

Chimp is Carnegie Mellon’s entry in this year’s Darpa (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Robotics Challenge, in which robots have to do things like drive a car, go through rubble, open doors, climb ladders and manipulate tools. The competition begins later this year, with the final taking place in 2014.

Chimp will be remotely guided by a human operator, but the robot’s own systems will handle functions such as collision avoidance and maintaining stability, by using a variety of onboard sensors that create a texture-mapped 3-D model of the robot’s surroundings.

Team leader Tony Stentz said: “Humans provide high-level control, while the robot provides low-level reflexes and self-protective behaviours. This enables Chimp to be highly capable without the complexity associated with a fully autonomous robot.” Meanwhile, Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute has developed Herb (the Home Exploring Robotic Butler ), which is soon to take part in a competition (Nabisco’s Cookie vs Creme Challenge) separating Oreo chocolate biscuits.

Herb, which speaks with a synthetic British accent and looks as if it is related to the Mars Rover, began life as a Segway-powered one-armed bandit that could locate and grasp coffee mugs or open kitchen cabinets. It has since been upgraded with an additional arm and three-fingered hands, plus a head equipped with cameras and Kinect-like sensors to help it interpret its surroundings and take on more complex tasks.