HYDE PARK — If it looks like the robot Thor could come to a screeching halt in a car and come bursting through a wall, it’s because it can.
Dennis Hong and his team at the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at the University of California Los Angeles designed the beefy frame of Thor for a robotics challenge that requires the robot to be able to cut through a wall, among other tasks.
Hong said that unlike two of his other robots, the cutting-edge Thor, packed with advanced features, wasn’t ready for the debut of Museum of Science and Industry’s new “Robot Revolution” exhibit, which opened Friday.
But in less than a month, he said at a sneak preview of the MSI exhibit Thursday, Thor will be able to drive a car, climb a ladder, cut through a wall and open doors on its own — no wires attached.
Thor is being developed for a robotics competition run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Department of Defense and is required to do all of this and more with minimal assistance from an operator.
The idea of the competition is to speed up the design of robots that can dive into disaster zones too dangerous for humans and do critical tasks like turn on release valves in a nuclear reactor in meltdown.
Hong said one of the things that makes Thor different from many of the robots at the museum is it’s light on its feet and can move with a sort of springiness like a human. It has none of the stiffness of the articulated mechanical arms used to weld car doors in a factory.
“If one of those things hits you, game over, you’re dead,” Hong said.
Thor's springiness allows it to climb over uneven terrain and maintain its footing without knowing the exact lay of the land.
Thor will head to Pomona, Calif., on June 4 to compete against 24 other teams of robots builders vying for $3.5 million in prize money.
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