Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

sl8

(13,749 posts)
Fri Jan 20, 2023, 08:08 PM Jan 2023

US Marines Defeat DARPA Robot by Hiding Under a Cardboard Box

https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/342413-us-marines-defeat-darpa-robot-by-hiding-under-a-cardboard-box

US Marines Defeat DARPA Robot by Hiding Under a Cardboard Box

By Adrianna Nine on January 19, 2023 at 3:16 pm

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has invested some of its resources into a robot that’s been trained—likely among other things—to identify humans. There’s just one little problem: The robot is cartoonishly easy to confuse.
Army veteran, former Pentagon policy analyst, and author Paul Scharre is gearing up to release a new book called Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Despite the fact that the book isn’t scheduled to hit shelves until Feb. 28, Twitter users are already sharing excerpts via social media. This includes The Economist‘s defense editor, Shashank Joshi, who shared a particularly laughable passage on Twitter.

In the excerpt, Scharre describes a week during which DARPA calibrated its robot’s human recognition algorithm alongside a group of US Marines. The Marines and a team of DARPA engineers spent six days walking around the robot, training it to identify the moving human form. On the seventh day, the engineers placed the robot at the center of a traffic circle and devised a little game: The Marines had to approach the robot from a distance and touch the robot without being detected.

DARPA was quickly humbled. Scharre writes that all eight Marines were able to defeat the robot using techniques that could have come straight out of a Looney Tunes episode. Two of the Marines somersaulted toward the center of the traffic circle, thus using a form of movement the robot hadn’t been trained to identify. Another pair shuffled toward the robot under a cardboard box. One Marine even stripped a nearby fir tree and was able to reach the robot by walking “like a fir tree” (the meaning of which Twitter users are still working to figure out).

[...]

7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
US Marines Defeat DARPA Robot by Hiding Under a Cardboard Box (Original Post) sl8 Jan 2023 OP
It is llike the autonomous vehicles moniss Jan 2023 #1
poor robot BlueWaveNeverEnd Jan 2023 #2
See the movie 'M3gan', cardboard box would not fool her! BlueWaveNeverEnd Jan 2023 #3
Watched it yesterday, it's a fun movie. Dave Bowman Jan 2023 #6
it is. loved the robot. BlueWaveNeverEnd Jan 2023 #7
This message was self-deleted by its author Chin music Jan 2023 #4
How many millions on that????? LakeArenal Jan 2023 #5

moniss

(4,231 posts)
1. It is llike the autonomous vehicles
Fri Jan 20, 2023, 08:30 PM
Jan 2023

and how easy it is too freeze them in place. A trash can/traffic cone etc. at the front and rear bumpers and they will not move. Unless it's a Tesla and in that case it likely would start moving even if it sensed another vehicle or a human being.

BlueWaveNeverEnd

(7,921 posts)
7. it is. loved the robot.
Sat Jan 21, 2023, 11:39 PM
Jan 2023

watched the "making of.." on youtube. robot is combination of real little girl (gymnastic champion), CGI and adult woman's as the voice

Response to sl8 (Original post)

Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»National Security & Defense»US Marines Defeat DARPA R...