ARM

A white humanoid robot stands at a table moving yellow blocks. It's camera vision is displayed on two monitors beside it. — ARM is a very manipulative robot. Photo: DARPA

ARM is a two-armed robot designed to perform complex manipulation tasks. It was created for DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation program. Its official name is ARM, but you can call him Robbie.

Creators

DARPA and RE2

Year

2010

Country

United States 🇺🇸

Categories

Features

DARPA ARM manipulation demo. Video: IEEE Spectrum

Did you know?

When RE2, the firm hired to build the ARM robot, asked DARPA for guidance about the robot's appearance, DARPA said the robot should look like a Star Wars character.

Close up of a humanoid robot looking at a yellow block held in its grip. — "Can I play with a Rubik's Cube instead?" Photo: DARPA

Audio

Former DARPA program manager Gill Pratt describes his reaction after seeing the ARM robot for the first time.

Photo: Janey Pratt

Gill Pratt describes how the ARM robot uses cameras and tactile sensors to perform tasks such as unlocking a door with a key.

Photo: DARPA

History

Led by Dr. Gill Pratt, DARPA's Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program aimed at developing hardware and software to significantly advance robots' ability to manipulate and interact with the physical world. The ARM robot was built as a test bed for the research and development of algorithms to perform human-level tasks quickly and with minimal direction. In 2010, six institutions were selected for the first phase of the program, with each group receiving a one-armed robot to work with. In late 2011, DARPA evaluated each group's performance and subsequently initiated the program's second phase, where focus turned to complex bimanual manipulation scenarios. The program also included an outreach component, whose aim is to show the robotics community and the public how the technologies developed might be used in the future and to get people excited about robotics and engineering in general.

A robotic gripper hand holds a yellow cube with a black and white pattern on it in its fingers. — The robot inspects a pattern on a block. Photo: DARPA

A robot head on a white background. — The head of ARM. Photo: Evan Ackerman

Specs

Overview: Bimanual manipulation, autonomous and teleoperation modes, designed with commercially available parts, simulation package.
Status: Inactive
Year: 2010
Website: darpa.mil/program/autonomous-robotic-manipulation
Width: 274 cm
Height: 198 cm
Weight: 204 kg
Sensors: Stereo camera, high-resolution camera, LIDAR, stereo microphones, position sensors (in the joints), force-torque sensor (end-effector), and tactile sensors (fingers and palm).
Actuators: Cable-driven Barrett WAM Arm and Barrett Hand.
Degrees of Freedom (DoF): 26 (Neck: 4 DoF; Arm: 7 DoF x 2; Hand: 4 DoF x 2)
Materials: Mostly aluminum for WAM arms and sensors; steel for torso and support structure.
Compute: PC/104 stack for on-board, low-level control of WAM. Sensor processing, path planning, and all high-level functionality performed off-board on dual quad-core Intel Xeon computer.
Software: Linux on PC/104 and off-board computer. Robot Operating System (ROS) used as main software platform.
Power: Tethered
Cost: $500,000 (estimate)