What Happened to NASA’s Valkyrie Robot at the DRC Trials, and What’s Next, IEEE
“At the DRC Trials, Valkyrie experienced a “networking issue” that prevented the team from scoring any points. In the garage before the DRC Trials began, everything worked fine. But on the course itself, the JSC Team “could not communicate with the robot at all.” They would later discover the culprit: a network traffic shaping tool that they’d added to their code and that ended up blocking data from the operator to the robot. This manifested itself as a “major instability in the control system,” preventing the robot from functioning almost completely.”
NASA JSC Has Developed A Girl Robot in Secret (Revised With NASA Responses), earlier post
NASA JSC’s Valkyrie Robot Tied For Last Place in DARPA Competition, earlier post
No One is in the Driver’s Seat at NASA, earlier post
NASA JSC’s Expensive Custom Trailer For Val the Robot, earlier post

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5 replies on “JSC's Girl Robot Lost Competition Due to Broken WiFi”

  1. There is no mention of WiFi or wireless in the IEEE article. Given that the DRC Trials did not involve wireless networks, it is highly unlikely that “broken WiFi” was a factor as currently indicated in the post title.

    1. Maybe they should have used WIFI. The equipment is off the shelf and pretty reliable. If it was a custom data link, there would not be much other traffic. Why would it need a “traffic shaping tool”?

  3. BTW – I’m not being snarky. These people were out there bleeding on the edge and Murphy dealt them a joker. Goes with the territory. Congrats to them. Keep on trucking.

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