Fishing for Passion

Fishing for Data
Korho

I was doing a little  data fishing today and decided to look into Lockhead & Martin.  I came across the picture of this robot. 

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/content/dam/lockheed/data/corporate/photo/innovation/IWP-Robotics-DARPA-video.jpg

DARPA  

Introducing DARPA.  I watched the video, but it told me nothing. The speakers spat out techy words and phrases like “Seeking full autonomy…”, “A future where robots are truly autonomous”, “Mobility and manipulation for humanoid robotics” and “Cooperative autonomy approach”.  None of their words answer the common questions your average person would likey ask about DARPA and this cool looking robot.  I have an issue with articles that make no sense or fail to be informative.

At CSUF, Professor Radcliffe  used to tell us that  when ran into a line of research that leads into a dead end, look at what the data is NOT telling you, and that is where you will find your research paper.  So I am trying the same approach with this article.  I want to start with the biggest clue available: DARPA.  A google search of the acronym leads me to the words Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.  Well, this just got a little more interesting.

One of the first links that the google search engine gives me is to this url (http://www.darpa.mil/). Note the dot mil tag. That means this is a military or military related site. To the right  is part of the picture that the site shows. It is a robot turning a large valve. He could be turning something on or turning off the flow of water or gas or anything. It also looks like the valve is too much for most mento deal with.  Wouldn’t that be helpful in emergency situations.

DARPA was established in 1958 to make sure that the Nation was not caught with it’s military might down ever again.  The agency is the proverbial net that catches any nasty surprises that may impact US national security. DARPA is the primary  innovative engine for the Department of Defense (DoD).  It is an agency that gives birth to not one, but many technological projects. Not all of the projects are dealing with robots. However,  isn’t it amazing how cool your robot could come out if you worked under a contract of a two million dollar per year budget. I am sure that I am reading the budget information wrong, as I have no head for finance.  No matter, though, because it is all open source information  (http://www.darpa.mil/NewsEvents/Budget.aspx) for anyone who wants to audit the government’s spending habbits. Unofficially, ofcourse. 

By The Way

Just to make it clear, I am posting this blog simply  to document the efforts I am taking to pursue a passion in life. Robots are cool and I needed a way to start writing articles and blogs about them.  I figure detailing my research approach is a unique way to go about learning how to write articles about robots.

I will continue this blog later.  I will find my passion next time.

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