Non-traditional roboticists to help bolster national security
DARPA says that to help these nontraditional entities work with the federal government for the first time, the agency is collaborating with the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF), an independent non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community. OSRF focuses primarily on software development but plays a central role in the small-scale robotics community in advocating for the overall advancement of robotics research and development.
“Lots of smart people have good ideas for advancing the state of the art, but aren’t ready to invest the time and effort necessary to navigate the government’s traditional contracting mechanisms,” said Brian Gerkey, CEO and founder of OSRF. “Through RFT, we aim to support these people, explore their ideas and change the landscape of robotics at a pace that wasn’t previously possible.”
OSRF has teamed with BIT Systems, a federal contractor with experience working on fast-track initiatives, including DARPA’s previous Cyber Fast Track program. BIT Systems is supporting RFT by acting as an interface between the government and performers, helping performers learn how to work with the government and how to present their work in ways that can to speed evaluation of their proposals.
Areas of technical interest that RFT intends to explore include:
- Expansion and augmentation of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies
- Leveraging open source, open standards and rapid prototyping capabilities
- Technologies to greatly improve the agility, speed, endurance and range of robotic platforms
- Technologies to dramatically advance capabilities related to robotic sensing, perception, planning and communication
- Technologies that could apply to one or more key military operational domains (air, ground, maritime and space) and/or mission areas (including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, situational awareness, and humanitarian assistance/disaster response)
- Technologies that could also apply to complementary non-military national security missions (including law enforcement, firefighting and emergency response)
Technology development beyond these areas will be considered as long as it supports the program’s goals, which include both jumpstarting a new public-private community of interest for national security robotics and building momentum toward a potential future DARPA program with funding levels at least an order of magnitude larger than RFT. Moreover, a number of other government agencies — including the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — have expressed interest in evaluating successful RFT projects and performers for use in their operations.
Individuals and organizations interested in participating in RFT can apply at http://ow.ly/METJ9.
Additionally, OSRF representatives will attend the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals at the Fairplex in Pomona, California on 5-6 June 2015. The representatives will be available to discuss RFT in the DRC Finals exposition area, which will feature seventy interactive displays where visitors can meet technology developers and emergency responders, and try their hand at controlling robots and other gadgets. More information about the DRC Finals is available at http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/.
