1
00:00:04,240 --> 00:00:12,000
Speaker 1: Get in Touch with Technology was tex Stuff from Hi

2
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:16,040
Speaker 1: there and welcome to textas. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. Today,

3
00:00:16,160 --> 00:00:19,360
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about robots now. I've talked about

4
00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:22,279
Speaker 1: robots both here on tech Stuff and on my other show,

5
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,840
Speaker 1: Forward Thinking. One of my first assignments and How Stuff

6
00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:29,240
Speaker 1: Works was to update our article on how Asimo works.

7
00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:32,640
Speaker 1: That's the humanoid robot from Honda. But my fascination with

8
00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:36,560
Speaker 1: robots goes back much much further. When I was a kid,

9
00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,920
Speaker 1: I watched tons of movies with robots in films like

10
00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:42,680
Speaker 1: Star Wars and The Black Hole. I was a huge

11
00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:46,920
Speaker 1: fan of Buck Rogers and Balstar Galactica. I mean the

12
00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:49,440
Speaker 1: good version of Battle Star, you know, the one that

13
00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:53,360
Speaker 1: was from Night and had that really awesome theme song. Anyway,

14
00:00:53,880 --> 00:00:57,320
Speaker 1: robots spectored into some of my favorite television series and movies,

15
00:00:57,360 --> 00:00:59,840
Speaker 1: and that love goes strong today. One of the things

16
00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 1: I didn't appreciate as a kid but really understand now

17
00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,240
Speaker 1: is how complicated a field robotics really is. There are

18
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:11,319
Speaker 1: enormous challenges designers face when creating a robot. Even a

19
00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:14,560
Speaker 1: stationary robot that only needs to complete a few precise

20
00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:19,800
Speaker 1: movements is a complicated and potentially dangerous creation. Robots that

21
00:01:19,920 --> 00:01:23,199
Speaker 1: move around come with even more challenges, and a robot

22
00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:27,680
Speaker 1: that can navigate through variable terrain is a huge design challenge.

23
00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:32,200
Speaker 1: Then there's the AI side of the equation. Artificial intelligence

24
00:01:32,280 --> 00:01:34,640
Speaker 1: is a term that gets thrown around a lot, and

25
00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,720
Speaker 1: people often misuse it or focus on a very narrow

26
00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:40,880
Speaker 1: definition of it. Most of the discussions I hear about

27
00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:45,080
Speaker 1: AI are really about strong AI. That's the concept of

28
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:48,920
Speaker 1: a machine capable of simulating thought on some level. But

29
00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,960
Speaker 1: AI isn't just about getting a computer to think. In fact,

30
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:57,280
Speaker 1: it's not even primarily about that. AI can involve building

31
00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:01,160
Speaker 1: systems that allow robots to perceive their environ moments, interpret

32
00:02:01,240 --> 00:02:05,080
Speaker 1: the data they receive, and respond appropriately. It might include

33
00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: optical systems or voice recognition software. It could require natural

34
00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,880
Speaker 1: language processing so that the way you and I speak

35
00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,120
Speaker 1: becomes intelligible to a machine. It could involve plotting a

36
00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:19,720
Speaker 1: pathway through a new environment. Now, if you or I

37
00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:22,440
Speaker 1: were to walk into a room for the first time,

38
00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:25,560
Speaker 1: we probably find it pretty easy to make our way

39
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,240
Speaker 1: to a specific point in the room. Even if there

40
00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:31,560
Speaker 1: were obstacles in the way, we could reason our way

41
00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:35,200
Speaker 1: around it. Even taking the pathway that requires the least

42
00:02:35,200 --> 00:02:38,680
Speaker 1: amount of work to get there. For a robot, that's

43
00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: not necessarily the easiest task, particularly in a room that

44
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,240
Speaker 1: has changing conditions in it. What I'm getting at is

45
00:02:47,280 --> 00:02:52,000
Speaker 1: that building robots designed to maneuver through new and potentially

46
00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:56,000
Speaker 1: changing environments bring with it a host of engineering and

47
00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,520
Speaker 1: programming challenges. It's a wonder that anyone ever tries to

48
00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:01,640
Speaker 1: even do it. But that brings us to what I

49
00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,919
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about today, the DARPA Robotics Challenge. Now

50
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,480
Speaker 1: DARPA is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency part of

51
00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,680
Speaker 1: the Department of Defense. Before nineteen seventy two, it was

52
00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:17,080
Speaker 1: known as ARPA, and it's the agency responsible for the

53
00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:22,040
Speaker 1: creation of ARPA Net, which is the predecessor to today's Internet.

54
00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:26,520
Speaker 1: The organization is dedicated to research and development of new technologies.

55
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,920
Speaker 1: It was founded in nineteen fifty eight, a year after

56
00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:36,600
Speaker 1: the then Soviet Union launched the beeping satellite Sputnik. President

57
00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:41,160
Speaker 1: Eisenhower directed U S Secretary of Defense Neil McElroy, to

58
00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:46,240
Speaker 1: coordinate a national space program. The Department of Defense formed

59
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:50,360
Speaker 1: ARPA in February nineteen fifty eight as a special agency

60
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 1: within the Pentagon to maintain technological superiority over potential adversaries. Originally,

61
00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:02,000
Speaker 1: the agency had three presidential erectives to follow. The first

62
00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,800
Speaker 1: was to get the U S Space program off the

63
00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:10,120
Speaker 1: ground figuratively and literally. The second was to come up

64
00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,600
Speaker 1: with the means of protecting the United States from Soviet

65
00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,960
Speaker 1: missile attacks, and the third was to find ways to

66
00:04:17,040 --> 00:04:21,440
Speaker 1: detect Soviet nuclear tests. The first director of the agency

67
00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:27,040
Speaker 1: was Roy Johnson, who aggressively pursued the organization's goals. ARPA

68
00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,440
Speaker 1: was and remains independent from the military services now. This

69
00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,880
Speaker 1: gives the organization a huge advantage in that it can

70
00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:38,599
Speaker 1: explore high risk research and development projects that the military

71
00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:43,200
Speaker 1: services can't pursue. The potential payoffs for these projects might

72
00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:47,080
Speaker 1: be huge, but there may be no guarantee that they'll succeed.

73
00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,039
Speaker 1: The agency has created a culture of thinking outside the box.

74
00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:54,880
Speaker 1: ARPA was responsible for much of the early work that

75
00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,360
Speaker 1: would eventually send astronauts to space and to the Moon.

76
00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,440
Speaker 1: As the work progressed, ARPA transitioned and shared its research

77
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:07,080
Speaker 1: and development with the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration,

78
00:05:07,400 --> 00:05:11,600
Speaker 1: or NASA. ARPA itself was affected heavily by this transition,

79
00:05:11,640 --> 00:05:14,600
Speaker 1: it stopped looking into the space race. Many people were

80
00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,520
Speaker 1: either let go or moved to other departments, and budgets

81
00:05:17,560 --> 00:05:21,760
Speaker 1: were cut. In the nineteen sixties, the organization focused on

82
00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:26,040
Speaker 1: other big projects for the Department of Defense. In the process,

83
00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:31,960
Speaker 1: we made great strides and several scientific fields, including geology, seismology,

84
00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:36,960
Speaker 1: and radio astronomy. ARPA was identifying specific goals we needed

85
00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:41,040
Speaker 1: to meet, which brought to light engineering challenges. This gave

86
00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:44,680
Speaker 1: people working with and for ARPA the direction they needed

87
00:05:44,680 --> 00:05:48,880
Speaker 1: to solve tough problems. Often this would create benefits beyond

88
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:53,720
Speaker 1: completing a project. Now. DARPA has been involved with robotics

89
00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:57,800
Speaker 1: for years. I've talked about driverless cars on this show before,

90
00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:00,919
Speaker 1: like the ones being designed by Google. Many of the

91
00:06:00,960 --> 00:06:04,240
Speaker 1: cars in development right now owe a lot to DARPA.

92
00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:08,480
Speaker 1: Back in two thousand four, DARPA held the DARPA Grand Challenge,

93
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:12,560
Speaker 1: which created a competition between teams to build an autonomous

94
00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:17,400
Speaker 1: car capable of navigating through a course. The big winner

95
00:06:17,680 --> 00:06:22,640
Speaker 1: of the two thousand four Grand Challenge was nobody. Not

96
00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:26,400
Speaker 1: a single team managed to complete the course, but rather

97
00:06:26,440 --> 00:06:31,120
Speaker 1: than become discouraged, the various mechanics engineers, computer scientists and

98
00:06:31,200 --> 00:06:34,040
Speaker 1: inventors went back to the drawing board to try again.

99
00:06:34,839 --> 00:06:37,359
Speaker 1: The challenge was held again in two thousand five, and

100
00:06:37,480 --> 00:06:41,840
Speaker 1: this time five teams completed the course. In first place

101
00:06:41,960 --> 00:06:46,000
Speaker 1: was the Stanford Racing team with Stanley their autonomous vehicle.

102
00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,599
Speaker 1: The course included narrow tunnels and sharp turns. On that

103
00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,200
Speaker 1: team with Stanford was Sebastian Thrunn, who was the director

104
00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:58,839
Speaker 1: of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Now he has a

105
00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,480
Speaker 1: different job title. He's the project leader on Google's self

106
00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:07,680
Speaker 1: driving car project. In two thousand seven, DARPA held another challenge,

107
00:07:08,040 --> 00:07:12,480
Speaker 1: this time putting autonomous vehicles in a simulated urban environment

108
00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:18,160
Speaker 1: complete with traffic signs and signals and other traffic Tartan Racing,

109
00:07:18,400 --> 00:07:23,160
Speaker 1: A team from Carnegie melon University claimed first place. Five

110
00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:27,480
Speaker 1: other teams successfully completed the course. Maneuvering through traffic and

111
00:07:27,520 --> 00:07:31,160
Speaker 1: obeying traffic laws added new parameters to the challenge. Cars

112
00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,800
Speaker 1: couldn't just plot a pathway and follow it. It's hard

113
00:07:34,840 --> 00:07:38,040
Speaker 1: for me to get across exactly how big a deal

114
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:42,200
Speaker 1: designing an autonomous vehicle really is. It has to do

115
00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:45,480
Speaker 1: things that you and I take for granted, but that

116
00:07:45,600 --> 00:07:49,520
Speaker 1: in no way shape or form come naturally to a machine,

117
00:07:49,960 --> 00:07:53,160
Speaker 1: and that's not where the story ends. Now it's time

118
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,760
Speaker 1: to talk about the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the finals for

119
00:07:56,840 --> 00:07:59,680
Speaker 1: which will take place in June of this year, two

120
00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:02,480
Speaker 1: thous and fifteen. But before we get into that, let's

121
00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,720
Speaker 1: take a quick break to thank our sponsor. You have

122
00:08:05,760 --> 00:08:10,480
Speaker 1: a smartphone, what about a smart home? Smart Things has

123
00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:14,760
Speaker 1: created a super easy way to control, automate, and secure

124
00:08:14,880 --> 00:08:16,920
Speaker 1: every aspect of your home, and you don't have to

125
00:08:16,960 --> 00:08:19,720
Speaker 1: be a tech genius to install and use it. That's

126
00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:21,880
Speaker 1: why they were named one of the top ten coolest

127
00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:25,000
Speaker 1: Gadgets of the Year by Time magazine. That's why they

128
00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,200
Speaker 1: were one of the two thousand fifteen ce S Editors

129
00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:33,079
Speaker 1: Award winners. Smart Things instantly turns your normal home into

130
00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:36,920
Speaker 1: a smart, connected home where you can do magical things

131
00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:42,240
Speaker 1: just using your smartphone as the interface. You can control lights, locks, thermostats,

132
00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,319
Speaker 1: security with smart Things. It's all connected through a single

133
00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:49,480
Speaker 1: app that works on iPhone, Android and Windows phones. Personally,

134
00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,560
Speaker 1: I would use this for lots of different things. Here's

135
00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,400
Speaker 1: one example. I can imagine sitting down on my couch

136
00:08:56,760 --> 00:08:59,200
Speaker 1: and getting ready to watch a spooky movie. So I

137
00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:02,000
Speaker 1: use my app to set the lights to the right

138
00:09:02,080 --> 00:09:04,920
Speaker 1: lighting level to get that good atmosphere. Maybe turn the

139
00:09:04,920 --> 00:09:07,120
Speaker 1: thermostat down a little bit, make it a little chilly,

140
00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:09,000
Speaker 1: you know, really get into it so that I can

141
00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,160
Speaker 1: enjoy the experience. And all for the convenience of the phone.

142
00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:13,800
Speaker 1: I don't have to get up and do any of

143
00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:18,800
Speaker 1: this manually. Now it has no required monthly fees and kits.

144
00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:24,199
Speaker 1: Start at smart Things is affordable for everyone, and for

145
00:09:24,320 --> 00:09:28,760
Speaker 1: my listeners, it's even more affordable. Get ten percent off

146
00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:32,960
Speaker 1: any smart Things home security or solution kit and free

147
00:09:32,960 --> 00:09:36,480
Speaker 1: shipping in the US. Just go to smart things dot

148
00:09:36,480 --> 00:09:44,040
Speaker 1: com slash tech. The challenge is this build a robot

149
00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,160
Speaker 1: that is capable of entering a disaster area, navigating to

150
00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:52,560
Speaker 1: a specific location, and activating machinery to prevent the disaster

151
00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:56,360
Speaker 1: from becoming worse. The inspiration for the challenge came from

152
00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:00,319
Speaker 1: a real world incident Gil Pratt from DARPA explod eights.

153
00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:03,920
Speaker 1: The Darker Robotics Challenge is a program the DARPA is

154
00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:08,720
Speaker 1: running to develop technology to make our society more resilient

155
00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:12,560
Speaker 1: to natural and man made disasters. Uh It was inspired

156
00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,760
Speaker 1: directly by the Fukushima disaster in Japan that had a

157
00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:19,520
Speaker 1: nuclear meltdown and the release of radioactive contamination as part

158
00:10:19,559 --> 00:10:23,320
Speaker 1: of it, and our inspiration in that disaster was that

159
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:26,440
Speaker 1: if robots had been there during the first day or

160
00:10:26,440 --> 00:10:30,800
Speaker 1: two of that disaster, the release of the radioactive contamination

161
00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:34,280
Speaker 1: could have been prevented. In particular, there were three explosions

162
00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:36,600
Speaker 1: that occurred, and had robots been able to go in

163
00:10:36,640 --> 00:10:40,040
Speaker 1: there and open up some valves to release the pressure, uh,

164
00:10:40,200 --> 00:10:42,200
Speaker 1: the disaster would not have been nearly as bad as

165
00:10:42,200 --> 00:10:44,520
Speaker 1: it ended up being. Now, of course, we can't change

166
00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:47,800
Speaker 1: the past, so um what we need to do is

167
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,240
Speaker 1: to prepare for the future, and the point of the

168
00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,200
Speaker 1: Darker Robotics Challenge is to develop a kind of technology

169
00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:56,439
Speaker 1: for humans and robots working together at what each one

170
00:10:56,520 --> 00:10:59,960
Speaker 1: is best at, with the robots working in a contaminated

171
00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:03,080
Speaker 1: area and human beings working in a safe zone to

172
00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:06,680
Speaker 1: be able to emergently handle natural and man made disasters

173
00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:10,360
Speaker 1: that may occur in the future. Using the Fukushima disaster

174
00:11:10,480 --> 00:11:13,680
Speaker 1: as a model, DARPA has created a scenario in which

175
00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:17,440
Speaker 1: robots will encounter situations similar to what was happening in Japan.

176
00:11:18,080 --> 00:11:21,680
Speaker 1: The challenge isn't just a single task, it's a series

177
00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:25,480
Speaker 1: of them. We're trying to emulate a real disaster, and

178
00:11:25,559 --> 00:11:28,400
Speaker 1: even though we don't expect the next disaster to be

179
00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:31,040
Speaker 1: the same as what happened in Fukushima, we're using that

180
00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,840
Speaker 1: as our exemplar. And so the robots will have to

181
00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:36,760
Speaker 1: begin by being placed into a vehicle in a safe

182
00:11:36,800 --> 00:11:40,880
Speaker 1: area by their human handlers. The robot will then, under

183
00:11:40,960 --> 00:11:44,680
Speaker 1: human supervision, have to drive a certain distance in order

184
00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:47,320
Speaker 1: to get to a particular site, which is similar to

185
00:11:47,360 --> 00:11:50,240
Speaker 1: the reactor site in Japan, but of course ours is

186
00:11:50,320 --> 00:11:52,560
Speaker 1: just a mock up. Having gotten to the site, the

187
00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:54,199
Speaker 1: robot will have to get out of the vehicle and

188
00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:56,920
Speaker 1: egress on its own, open a door to get into

189
00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,160
Speaker 1: the site, walk into the building, and then travel or

190
00:12:00,160 --> 00:12:03,200
Speaker 1: some debris, move some debris out of the way, uh

191
00:12:03,240 --> 00:12:05,880
Speaker 1: and then do tasks that are similar to what needed

192
00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:09,439
Speaker 1: to be done in Fukushima. The established tasks present big

193
00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:13,320
Speaker 1: problems for engineers to solve. A robot capable of driving

194
00:12:13,320 --> 00:12:17,079
Speaker 1: a car is different from an autonomous vehicle. Teams will

195
00:12:17,080 --> 00:12:19,680
Speaker 1: have to build robots that have appendages that can work

196
00:12:19,679 --> 00:12:23,959
Speaker 1: with vehicles we've designed for ourselves. Navigating through debris is

197
00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,880
Speaker 1: another tough problem. The robots will need to be able

198
00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:30,720
Speaker 1: to test their pathways carefully before committing to them. But

199
00:12:30,880 --> 00:12:37,359
Speaker 1: then there's the surprise. Robots don't do well with surprises. Typically,

200
00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:42,160
Speaker 1: roboticists design their machines for specific purposes. You define the

201
00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:45,160
Speaker 1: parameters of what your robots should be able to do,

202
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:51,000
Speaker 1: and you ignore anything that falls outside those parameters. But surprises,

203
00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:55,200
Speaker 1: by their very nature can fall outside your normal consideration.

204
00:12:55,720 --> 00:12:59,120
Speaker 1: So designing a robot that can adapt to situations makes

205
00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:02,920
Speaker 1: things truly challenging, and in fact, we add some difficulty

206
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:05,360
Speaker 1: even beyond a surprise, which is that we make the

207
00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:08,240
Speaker 1: communications more difficult than it ordinarily would be if there

208
00:13:08,280 --> 00:13:12,280
Speaker 1: was no disaster. In real disasters, usually communication infrastructure is

209
00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:15,080
Speaker 1: degraded and everybody's trying to talk on the radio at

210
00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:17,520
Speaker 1: the same time, and so we have something called a

211
00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:21,000
Speaker 1: degraded communication emulator, which is a piece of hardware that

212
00:13:21,120 --> 00:13:23,720
Speaker 1: makes the communication network between the human beings and the

213
00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:27,360
Speaker 1: robots much worse than it ordinarily would be if there

214
00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,280
Speaker 1: wasn't any simulation of a disaster going on. And so

215
00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:32,280
Speaker 1: the teams will have to do well despite a lot

216
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:35,800
Speaker 1: of interruption and a lot of degradation of communication. Now,

217
00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:39,480
Speaker 1: imagine that you're on one of those engineering teams. Your

218
00:13:39,559 --> 00:13:42,360
Speaker 1: robot has to be able to drive a vehicle to

219
00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:46,880
Speaker 1: another location, get out of the vehicle, navigate into a building,

220
00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,200
Speaker 1: climb a flight of stairs, cut a hole in a wall,

221
00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:54,800
Speaker 1: manipulate cables and controls, and deal with something outside of

222
00:13:54,840 --> 00:13:58,040
Speaker 1: those events. On top of that, you can't rely on

223
00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:01,080
Speaker 1: communication systems to guide your robot or keep eyes on

224
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:05,640
Speaker 1: what's happening remotely. It almost sounds like an impossible challenge,

225
00:14:06,400 --> 00:14:09,959
Speaker 1: but the point is that this pushes roboticists to think

226
00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:14,719
Speaker 1: through these problems and create new solutions. It forces innovation,

227
00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:17,760
Speaker 1: and more importantly, it gets us closer to a world

228
00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:23,760
Speaker 1: in which robots can realistically and reliably respond in emergency situations.

229
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:28,119
Speaker 1: Darbas says that we should expect to see robots operating

230
00:14:28,240 --> 00:14:31,440
Speaker 1: on the level of a two year old child. They

231
00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,960
Speaker 1: will be able to carry out simple commands autonomously, but

232
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:38,360
Speaker 1: we'll need human intervention to chain together a series of

233
00:14:38,400 --> 00:14:43,200
Speaker 1: simple commands to accomplish complicated goals. This, in turn, will

234
00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:46,880
Speaker 1: become the foundation for more sophisticated robots in the future,

235
00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:50,720
Speaker 1: perhaps some with the ability to adapt to new situations

236
00:14:50,720 --> 00:14:54,440
Speaker 1: and remain flexible and its decision making process. It's an

237
00:14:54,440 --> 00:14:58,000
Speaker 1: incredibly ambitious challenge and I can't wait to see how

238
00:14:58,040 --> 00:15:01,480
Speaker 1: the various teams tackle them. Of course, I'll be reading

239
00:15:01,520 --> 00:15:05,680
Speaker 1: about the challenge after it happens, but if you are

240
00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:08,400
Speaker 1: a high school student or you know someone in high

241
00:15:08,440 --> 00:15:12,040
Speaker 1: school who has an interest in robotics, you may get

242
00:15:12,120 --> 00:15:15,680
Speaker 1: to witness it firsthand. That's because DARPA is holding the

243
00:15:15,760 --> 00:15:19,840
Speaker 1: Robots for Us Challenge, which gives a pretty cool opportunity

244
00:15:19,920 --> 00:15:24,240
Speaker 1: to students. The Robots for Us Challenge is a contest

245
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,680
Speaker 1: that we're having for high school aged students from the

246
00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:30,760
Speaker 1: United States and its territories aimed at beginning to address

247
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:34,760
Speaker 1: societal issues with robotics, and in particular, there's been a

248
00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:39,840
Speaker 1: lot of buzz in the media recently about artificial intelligence

249
00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:41,880
Speaker 1: and robotics and what it might mean for the future.

250
00:15:42,760 --> 00:15:47,000
Speaker 1: DARPA believes that it's very important for us as technologists

251
00:15:47,160 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 1: to raise these issues with society and to let society

252
00:15:50,280 --> 00:15:52,520
Speaker 1: know that they should start thinking about this. And we

253
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:55,520
Speaker 1: think high school aged students are of the right age.

254
00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:57,520
Speaker 1: They're going to be the generation that's going to be

255
00:15:57,600 --> 00:16:00,920
Speaker 1: most affected by this, and so uh we would like

256
00:16:00,960 --> 00:16:03,360
Speaker 1: to see what high school students have to say about

257
00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,000
Speaker 1: these issues. I think this is fantastic. While we rush

258
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:10,480
Speaker 1: to innovate in robotics, we also must think about the

259
00:16:10,520 --> 00:16:14,160
Speaker 1: impact those developments will have, not just the direct impact

260
00:16:14,240 --> 00:16:17,440
Speaker 1: of this technology, but the social implications that could have

261
00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:19,920
Speaker 1: in the future. And while I have some thoughts on

262
00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:22,520
Speaker 1: the subject, I really do love to hear what younger

263
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:25,880
Speaker 1: people have to say about it. They often approach problems

264
00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,840
Speaker 1: with a perspective that simply would never occur to me,

265
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:33,080
Speaker 1: and Darba recognizes that potential as well. So how do

266
00:16:33,160 --> 00:16:36,640
Speaker 1: students get involved? Students can enter the contest by going

267
00:16:36,720 --> 00:16:40,200
Speaker 1: to the main DARKA Robotics Challenge website, which is the

268
00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,880
Speaker 1: Robotics Challenge dot org. That's just one word, the Robotics

269
00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:47,720
Speaker 1: Challenge dot org. And there they'll find a icon for

270
00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:52,320
Speaker 1: the Robots for Us contest, and you click on that

271
00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:54,240
Speaker 1: icon and it will take you to the forms in

272
00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,520
Speaker 1: order to register. The submission is in the form of

273
00:16:57,520 --> 00:16:59,720
Speaker 1: a two to three minute video clip that deals with

274
00:16:59,760 --> 00:17:03,240
Speaker 1: some issue in robots and society. Now, this is right

275
00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:08,840
Speaker 1: in my wheelhouse. I do videos like this every week. Sadly,

276
00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:12,640
Speaker 1: I'm a bit outside the brackets for the contest having

277
00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:17,879
Speaker 1: graduated high school back in but if I were still

278
00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:21,119
Speaker 1: of the appropriate age, who would see my submission? The

279
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,640
Speaker 1: judges of the video entries are going to be roboticists

280
00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:28,119
Speaker 1: and ethicist for our first pass, and then a second

281
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,560
Speaker 1: pass on the winners will be made by Darker program

282
00:17:31,560 --> 00:17:35,200
Speaker 1: managers and from that we will choose five winners. These

283
00:17:35,280 --> 00:17:38,640
Speaker 1: don't have to be solo projects. You can get help,

284
00:17:38,920 --> 00:17:42,840
Speaker 1: but each submission needs one person designated as the representative

285
00:17:42,880 --> 00:17:46,119
Speaker 1: of the video. That's the person who is eligible to

286
00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,720
Speaker 1: win the prize and the prize that's a trip to

287
00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:53,719
Speaker 1: the Robotics Challenge finals. And in addition, Darker will not

288
00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:56,159
Speaker 1: only pay travel expenses for that student to come to

289
00:17:56,200 --> 00:17:59,480
Speaker 1: the Darker Robotics Challenge, but also pay the travel expenses

290
00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:05,320
Speaker 1: for adult chaperon for that student. Let's take another quick

291
00:18:05,320 --> 00:18:09,119
Speaker 1: break for our sponsor. When you're selling online, getting your

292
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:11,680
Speaker 1: orders out the door quickly can be tough. That's why

293
00:18:11,760 --> 00:18:15,440
Speaker 1: you need ship station dot Com. It's the fast, easy

294
00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,679
Speaker 1: way to manage and ship all your orders all in

295
00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,520
Speaker 1: one place. With ship station dot com, you can easily

296
00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:26,560
Speaker 1: import customer orders from eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and more than

297
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:31,160
Speaker 1: fifty other popular market places and shopping carts. Then easily

298
00:18:31,240 --> 00:18:35,600
Speaker 1: create shipping labels for all the top carriers, including UPS

299
00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:39,480
Speaker 1: and fed X. Plus, get a free USPS account that

300
00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:43,280
Speaker 1: gives you access to deeply discounted USPS shipping rates, the

301
00:18:43,359 --> 00:18:47,080
Speaker 1: same rates once reserved for Fortune five hundred companies. It's

302
00:18:47,119 --> 00:18:50,040
Speaker 1: no wonder. Ship station dot Com is the number one

303
00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:55,720
Speaker 1: choice of online sellers with an incredible customer satisfaction rating.

304
00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,399
Speaker 1: Right now, you can try ship station dot com free

305
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:02,760
Speaker 1: for third d days, Plus you can get an additional

306
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,879
Speaker 1: month free only if you use the offer code text stuff.

307
00:19:07,359 --> 00:19:10,879
Speaker 1: Don't wait. Go to ship station dot com and before

308
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,679
Speaker 1: you do anything else, click on the microphone at the

309
00:19:14,720 --> 00:19:17,600
Speaker 1: top of the home page and type in tech stuff.

310
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:28,440
Speaker 1: That's ships station dot Com inter text stuff add the challenge.

311
00:19:28,600 --> 00:19:31,159
Speaker 1: The students will present their thoughts on the future of

312
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:34,479
Speaker 1: robots in our society to the various teams present. They

313
00:19:34,520 --> 00:19:36,760
Speaker 1: will have a chance to watch the teams compete with

314
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,040
Speaker 1: one another and complete the tasks. This is the sort

315
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:42,080
Speaker 1: of stuff I would have loved to do as a

316
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,480
Speaker 1: high school student. Heck, I want to do it right now.

317
00:19:46,480 --> 00:19:49,880
Speaker 1: Submissions are due by April one. You can find more

318
00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:53,480
Speaker 1: information at DARPA's website for the Robots for Us Challenge

319
00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:59,240
Speaker 1: at www dot the Robotics Challenge dot org. DARPA has

320
00:19:59,240 --> 00:20:03,400
Speaker 1: another challenge objective right now. It's the Cyber Grand Challenge,

321
00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:05,919
Speaker 1: and as you might guess, it has to do with

322
00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:11,200
Speaker 1: Internet security. This is becoming increasingly important as more critical

323
00:20:11,240 --> 00:20:16,000
Speaker 1: systems have connectivity to the network of networks. Take commerce

324
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:20,760
Speaker 1: for example. Every year, trillions of dollars of business rely

325
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,919
Speaker 1: upon the Internet in some fashion as attempting target. And

326
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,840
Speaker 1: as we add more devices to the Internet in our

327
00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,520
Speaker 1: quest to create the Internet of Things, it's only going

328
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:36,320
Speaker 1: to get more complicated. A connected gadget could serve as

329
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:41,600
Speaker 1: a network vulnerability, allowing attackers and entry point into a network. Now,

330
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:45,000
Speaker 1: it might be hyperbole to suggest that a refrigerator could

331
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,679
Speaker 1: lead to the collapse of a bank, but we do

332
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:51,639
Speaker 1: need to pay close attention to potential security hazards and

333
00:20:51,720 --> 00:20:54,760
Speaker 1: DARPA has come up with a creative challenge for programmers.

334
00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:59,000
Speaker 1: You see, attackers look for soft spots in a network.

335
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:02,000
Speaker 1: They just need to find in one vulnerability to exploit.

336
00:21:02,560 --> 00:21:07,000
Speaker 1: Their job is relatively easy. Now, designing a secure network

337
00:21:07,400 --> 00:21:12,080
Speaker 1: that's much more difficult. It's just about impossible to anticipate

338
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:14,840
Speaker 1: all potential weak points, and so if you want to

339
00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: make sure your system is secure, you put it to

340
00:21:17,840 --> 00:21:21,959
Speaker 1: the test on the Capture the Flag tournament circuit. In

341
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:26,160
Speaker 1: this circuit, hackers attempt to reverse engineer software in an

342
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:30,080
Speaker 1: effort to discover flaws in the programming. Anything that can

343
00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: be exploited is a potential victory. What DARPA is looking

344
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:38,360
Speaker 1: for is an automated system, a computer that can do

345
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:42,159
Speaker 1: the same thing as hackers. In an ideal world, a

346
00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: computer program could analyze billions of lines of code, discover

347
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:49,800
Speaker 1: any flaws, and even write a patch to remove the

348
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,480
Speaker 1: vulnerability before anyone could take advantage of it. In two

349
00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: thousand and sixteen, DARPA will hold an all computer Capture

350
00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:00,840
Speaker 1: the Flag tournament. It will take place during the def

351
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:04,679
Speaker 1: Con conference in Las Vegas. Will computers be able to

352
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,480
Speaker 1: dissect software with the same precision as human hackers. We'll

353
00:22:08,520 --> 00:22:10,920
Speaker 1: have to check back in two thousands sixteen to find out.

354
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,959
Speaker 1: I want to thank Gil Pratt for talking with me

355
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,360
Speaker 1: about the Robotics Challenge and the Robots for US competition,

356
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:20,639
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to hear more about how it

357
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,480
Speaker 1: all turns out. I'm also curious what the next big

358
00:22:23,560 --> 00:22:27,360
Speaker 1: challenge from DARPA might be. Got any ideas While we're

359
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 1: on the subject, If you have suggestions for future tech

360
00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,600
Speaker 1: stuff topics, you should throw them my way. My email

361
00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:37,720
Speaker 1: address is tech stuff at how stuffworks dot com. You

362
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: can also get in touch with me on Twitter, Facebook,

363
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:43,440
Speaker 1: and Tumbler. You can find me with a handle text

364
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: stuff hs W. Now, I'll talk to you again really

365
00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:55,359
Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

366
00:22:55,440 --> 00:23:01,879
Speaker 1: Because it has to works dot com. Che