Florida Senate - 2015 (NP) SR 16-A
By Senator Evers
2-00083-15A 201516A__
1 Senate Resolution
2 A resolution commending the Florida Institute for
3 Human and Machine Cognition team on its outstanding
4 performance in the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
5
6 WHEREAS, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
7 (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense
8 responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use
9 by the military, and
10 WHEREAS, launched in response to the humanitarian need that
11 arose during the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, in 2011,
12 the DARPA Robotics Challenge was a competition of robot systems
13 and software teams vying to develop robots capable of assisting
14 humans in responding to natural and manmade disasters, and
15 WHEREAS, participating teams representing some of the most
16 advanced robotics research and development organizations in the
17 world collaborate and innovate over a short period of time to
18 develop the hardware, software, sensors, and human-machine
19 control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete a
20 series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA for their relevance
21 to disaster response, and
22 WHEREAS, the DARPA Robotics Challenge consisted of three
23 increasingly demanding competitions held over the course of a 2
24 year period in which the goal was to accelerate progress in
25 robotics and hasten the day when robots have sufficient
26 dexterity and robustness to enter areas too dangerous for humans
27 and mitigate the impacts of natural or manmade disasters, and
28 WHEREAS, the first phase of the competition, the Virtual
29 Robotics Challenge (VRC), occurred in June 2013 on an open
30 source, cloud-based platform and tested 26 competing software
31 teams’ ability to effectively guide a simulated robot through
32 three sample tasks in a virtual environment, with the top six
33 teams moving on to participate in the DARPA Robotics Challenge
34 (DRC), and
35 WHEREAS, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine
36 Cognition (IHMC), based in Pensacola, entered the competition,
37 placed first in the VRC, and was provided an Atlas robot to
38 continue in the next phase of the competition, the DRC Trials,
39 and
40 WHEREAS, the DRC Trials occurred in December 2013 at the
41 Homestead-Miami Speedway, where teams guided their robots
42 through eight individual, physical tasks that tested mobility,
43 manipulation, dexterity, perception, and operator control
44 mechanisms, and
45 WHEREAS, IHMC placed second overall in the competition and
46 placed first in the Atlas robot competition, advancing to the
47 DRC Finals, and
48 WHEREAS, the DRC Finals challenged participating robotics
49 teams and their robots to complete a difficult course of eight
50 tasks relevant to disaster response, among them driving alone,
51 walking through rubble, tripping circuit breakers, turning
52 valves, and climbing stairs, and
53 WHEREAS, 12 teams from the United States and 11 teams from
54 Japan, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea, and Hong Kong competed
55 in the outdoor competition, held June 5-6, 2015, in Pomona,
56 California, and
57 WHEREAS, with 25 of the top robotics organizations in the
58 world gathered to compete for $3.5 million in prizes, the IHMC
59 team and its Robot, Running Man, took second place in the DRC
60 Finals, received $1 million, and was the top finisher in the
61 Atlas robot competition, and
62 WHEREAS, in competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the
63 23 members of the IHMC team brought great honor and distinction
64 to this state and successfully demonstrated the value of
65 robotics in responding to natural and manmade disasters, NOW,
66 THEREFORE,
67
68 Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
69
70 That the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
71 team is commended on its outstanding performance in the DARPA
72 Robotics Challenge.