NASA has created a robot for DARPA’s upcoming Robotics Challenge Trials. The Valkyrie is a six-foot two humanoid machine with detachable arms, sonar sensors, mounted cameras, and a glowing, Tony Stark-esque circle in the middle of its chest, that the space agency says is mobile and dexterous enough to enter disaster zones to provide search and rescue functions.
Let’s be honest: Most robots look pretty dumb these days. Whether it’s the little disk-shaped Roomba that cleans your floor or the jumble of rods and wires that builds your car, these machines seem—for lack of a better term—rudimentary. Not the Valkyrie.
