navy builds fake desert, jungle to test military robots

A few years later, when you want to know how robots get so hard, look at the military lab that opened this week in Washington, DC. C.
Research Laboratory of autonomous system (LASR)
It\'s the training camp for robots, where they will be tested for dust storms, coastlines and jungle humidity before being deployed to real things.
The 50,000-square-foot facility of the Naval Research Laboratory has a desert laboratory with Cliff and beach drift, the coastline laboratory can be turned into a swamp or beach, and a huge greenhouse rainforest, looks like a redundant scene in the movie Jurassic Park.
The cost is $17.
7 million, LASR may be a military trouble.
But its creators insist that by bringing the robot from the inventor\'s bench to the scene with faster and fewer errors, it will actually save decades of money.
\"Under one roof, we have a lab that captures all of our areas,\" Major General Matthew Klunder, head of Naval Research, said at a press conference on Monday. \"This is a one-of-a-
We hope this lab will save money.
\"Officials at the Naval Research Lab showed reporters the desert high bay, where robots for desert operations will try to dig holes with claws and sail 1/2 kilometersfoot-
Deep sand pits, or climbing fake rock walls.
The laboratory is equipped with a fan to make a sandstorm, to test the stage lighting of robot vision under different lighting conditions, and to restart the smoke machine
Create the fog of war. (See high-
Resolution photos here. )
Next door, a virtual coastline was built in the high bay of the marina, where there are groups of future seals --
Robots may perfect their coastal ways.
Its pool is 5 feet deep and the floor is tilted, can be filled with sand, gravel or mud and has a wave generator to create a surf area.
Anyone visiting the Naval Research Lab can\'t miss the tropical high bay, a huge greenhouse that stretches out the LASR building by the visitor center.
It has grown hundreds of trees to mimic the tropical jungle of South Asia and a stream flowing into the pond.
After maturity, the leaves will imitate the real Three
The sprinkler near the canopy rainforest and ceiling can produce anything, from wet fog to 6 inch rain per hour.
In its branches, the jungle
Robots can fly, climb, walk, swim-
Hope not to escape from the glass wall
The most flexible part of the lab is the \"man-machine interface lab\", an open space of 80 feet wide, designed to resemble the deck of a ship during the tour.
The researchers drove a small drone under a high ceiling.
Rooms are surrounded by cameras that can track up to 50 objects and shoot them at 1,000 frames per second-
The biggest sport
Glenn Henshaw, a naval robotics expert who helped design the facility, said capturing the world\'s environment is more complicated than anywhere in Hollywood.
Part of the room can be submerged to a depth of 6 inch to test the performance of the flying robot in the water.
And more: The Lab includes an outdoor forest with trees, boulders and water, and two \"environmental chambers\" that allow robots to withstand temperatures\"
50 degrees Fahrenheit to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, humidity up to 90%, air pressure from-
9,000 feet to 100,000 feet.
Leading robot experts say the simulator could be the first of its kind.
Institute of National Standards and Technology (NIST)
Designed the environment for urban search and rescue, the Texas Southwest Institute has created difficult indoor and outdoor obstacle classes.
But no other robots.
Specialized research in laboratory
Create outdoor activities-indoors.
LASR aims to solve an important but neglected problem in robotics.
Of course, scientists can design robots.
Scorpion intends to monitor the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
But how can he determine if the only place to test it is the parking lot of the University of Michigan?
The lab is \"a stepping stone between the lab and the field test,\" Henshaw said \".
At present, robot experts can wait for several months of testing time at the Yuma military base in Arizona or Hawaii, and it is difficult to transport their equipment, then it was found that the weather or some minor mechanical error made the trip useless.
\"It\'s actually very expensive,\" he said . \"
Elena Messina, acting director of NIST\'s Intelligent Systems Division, believes the new Navy lab is of great value.
\"I can compare the performance of robot A and robot B without having to fly to Panama,\" she said . \".
\"If I were a researcher. . .
I can test it and have an understanding of my research.
The challenging environment is there and it should inspire new and better solutions.
\"Driverless, self-driving vehicles are becoming a top priority for an army facing the pressures of saving lives and reducing the number of troops.
These services announced layoffs at the end of last year and are ready to make more money;
At the same time, the military is increasing the use of unmanned aircraft, hoping that robots can operate on the battlefield without manual operators.
LASR\'s research coincides with President Obama\'s National Robotics program, which uses $70 million in federal funding for robotics research.
It\'s not that researchers have easy access to LASR;
Alan Schulz, LASR director, said there is already a waiting list for the marina and man-machine interface laboratory, with a capacity of nearly 100% for the entire facility.
Priority is given to projects where multiple systems or disciplines work together.
I was told by several robot experts that they were eager to let it spin.
For Ronald Alkin, director of the mobile robotics lab at Georgia Tech, the attraction of LASR is that it blends control and chaos: not only can he make his machine affected by bad weather, but the same cruel weather, over and over again.
Also, he observed, \"there is no jungle on our campus.