By Michael Jermann, Assistant Editor

Micromo is doing its part to help develop robotics technology for disaster relief by sponsoring Carnegie Mellon University’s Tartan Rescue Team. The company is providing funding in the amount of $100,000 and technical support for the teams CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform (CHIMP).

The four-limbed, human-sized robot is designed to perform tasks such as climbing ladders, closing valves and even driving vehicles. The robot must be able to successfully perform all of these tasks during the DARPA Robotics Challenge. The competition is meant to help spur the development of advanced robotics designed to aid humans in mitigating and recovering from natural and man-made disasters in the future.

The team expects to have CHIMP fully assembled by the end of October, after which, they will dedicate all available resources to perform full body testing in preparation for the first physical competition of the DRC in December.

Prior to that, the team will split into two different programming sections. One team will use the arms, head and surrogate torso to perform grasping and manipulation tasks. The second team will use a separate torso and legs to develop CHIMP’s mobility.

CHIMP has made it to the top of the Track A teams, which are those who are building their own robots for the competition. They will be competing against Track B and C teams who will use humanoid robots provided by DARPA.

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