Florida Senate - 2015                            (NP)    SR 16-A
       
       
        
       By Senator Evers
       
       
       
       
       
       2-00083-15A                                            201516A__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution commending the Florida Institute for
    3         Human and Machine Cognition team on its outstanding
    4         performance in the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
    7  (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense
    8  responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use
    9  by the military, and
   10         WHEREAS, launched in response to the humanitarian need that
   11  arose during the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, in 2011,
   12  the DARPA Robotics Challenge was a competition of robot systems
   13  and software teams vying to develop robots capable of assisting
   14  humans in responding to natural and manmade disasters, and
   15         WHEREAS, participating teams representing some of the most
   16  advanced robotics research and development organizations in the
   17  world collaborate and innovate over a short period of time to
   18  develop the hardware, software, sensors, and human-machine
   19  control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete a
   20  series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA for their relevance
   21  to disaster response, and
   22         WHEREAS, the DARPA Robotics Challenge consisted of three
   23  increasingly demanding competitions held over the course of a 2
   24  year period in which the goal was to accelerate progress in
   25  robotics and hasten the day when robots have sufficient
   26  dexterity and robustness to enter areas too dangerous for humans
   27  and mitigate the impacts of natural or manmade disasters, and
   28         WHEREAS, the first phase of the competition, the Virtual
   29  Robotics Challenge (VRC), occurred in June 2013 on an open
   30  source, cloud-based platform and tested 26 competing software
   31  teams’ ability to effectively guide a simulated robot through
   32  three sample tasks in a virtual environment, with the top six
   33  teams moving on to participate in the DARPA Robotics Challenge
   34  (DRC), and
   35         WHEREAS, the Florida Institute for Human and Machine
   36  Cognition (IHMC), based in Pensacola, entered the competition,
   37  placed first in the VRC, and was provided an Atlas robot to
   38  continue in the next phase of the competition, the DRC Trials,
   39  and
   40         WHEREAS, the DRC Trials occurred in December 2013 at the
   41  Homestead-Miami Speedway, where teams guided their robots
   42  through eight individual, physical tasks that tested mobility,
   43  manipulation, dexterity, perception, and operator control
   44  mechanisms, and
   45         WHEREAS, IHMC placed second overall in the competition and
   46  placed first in the Atlas robot competition, advancing to the
   47  DRC Finals, and
   48         WHEREAS, the DRC Finals challenged participating robotics
   49  teams and their robots to complete a difficult course of eight
   50  tasks relevant to disaster response, among them driving alone,
   51  walking through rubble, tripping circuit breakers, turning
   52  valves, and climbing stairs, and
   53         WHEREAS, 12 teams from the United States and 11 teams from
   54  Japan, Germany, Italy, Republic of Korea, and Hong Kong competed
   55  in the outdoor competition, held June 5-6, 2015, in Pomona,
   56  California, and
   57         WHEREAS, with 25 of the top robotics organizations in the
   58  world gathered to compete for $3.5 million in prizes, the IHMC
   59  team and its Robot, Running Man, took second place in the DRC
   60  Finals, received $1 million, and was the top finisher in the
   61  Atlas robot competition, and
   62         WHEREAS, in competing in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, the
   63  23 members of the IHMC team brought great honor and distinction
   64  to this state and successfully demonstrated the value of
   65  robotics in responding to natural and manmade disasters, NOW,
   66  THEREFORE,
   67  
   68  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   69  
   70         That the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
   71  team is commended on its outstanding performance in the DARPA
   72  Robotics Challenge.