Even robots need to become more energy efficient

The military’s research arm wants more power-efficient ground robots that can stay on the battlefield for longer periods of time contract documents show.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is seeking ideas for how make combat robots operate with 20 times more endurance than those in development. It wants to improve actuated systems -- which control how stored energy is converted into movement -- as part of a funding program called Maximum Mobility and Manipulation.

Scientists could do this by improving how power is transmitted between robotic parts, incorporating springs and flywheels into designs, and mimicking how the human body uses energy to move, the request for proposals suggests.

“Compared to human beings and animals, however, the mobility and manipulation capability of present day robots is poor,” reads a program notice. “If these limitations were overcome, robots could assist in the execution of military operations far more effectively across a far greater range of missions.”

Another complementary defense venture capital program, the $34 million DARPA Robotics Challenge, is developing robots that can execute tasks and disaster relief in degraded environments.

Selected energy-efficiency projects will be demonstrated in December 2013 and if they make another round of funding, at the DARPA Robotics Challenge competition December 2014. Proposals are due by August 21.