NASA Challenges Researchers to Train Valkyrie Robot for Space
NASA wants pick up where the DARPA Robotics Challenge left off—and then go to Mars
NASA’s Valkyrie may have hit a few stumbling blocks during the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) trials, but the superhero robot's story isn’t over. NASA is creating a brand new competition, the Space Robotics Challenge (SRC), which will explore applications for humanoid robots in, well, space.
We caught up with project manager Kris Verdeyen and his team team at the DRC Finals, where they were showing off not just one but two Valkyrie robots. As part of the SRC, NASA plans to award the robots to DRC university teams.
We’d worried that NASA would see the DRC Trials as a failure of the robot and just give up. We should have had more faith, because NASA is in this for the long game, and so is Valkyrie. And where does the long game end? Mars.
Everything you need to know about the SRC: NASA Wants Help Training Valkyrie Robots to Go to Mars
Evan Ackerman is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Since 2007, he has written over 6,000 articles on robotics and technology. He has a degree in Martian geology and is excellent at playing bagpipes.