In the late 1960s, Lawrence Roberts helped develop a new kind of computer network that delivered information via packets. The new network eventually matured to become the modern Internet.
Much of the work on the technology was done when Roberts was chief scientist in the Information Processing Techniques Office at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the original name for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The new network became ARPAnet and then the Internet.
In the early 1970s, Roberts founded Telnet to apply the new technology to the commercial market. Although DARPA has evolved in the decades since Roberts left, the agency is still a great place to get funding for research projects that will benefit both the Defense Department and the commercial world, he said.
“It was a very strong period in DARPA’s history where they were not constrained as much as they are today,” Roberts said. “But the philosophy was pretty much the same as it is today in that we wanted programs which had valuable improvement potential for any particular technology. In the network case, it was equally valuable to the military and the commercial space.”
iROBOT’S SUCCESS STORY
Although developing technology as huge as the
Internet might be a long shot, work done at
DARPA still has the potential to become a
mainstream, highly used piece of technology.
When researchers at iRobot Corp. were developing a portable robot designed to perform dangerous missions, the concept seemed like science fiction, said Chris Jones, a research program manager at iRobot.
“The PackBot that today is considered a proven piece of technology and is out there doing great work was seen as cutting-edge and advanced just a few years ago,” Jones said.
Not surprisingly, the development of PackBot began as a DARPA project.
“Less than 10 years ago, the PackBot concept was something a lot of people didn’t necessarily know would come to fruition,” he said. “And here we are less than 10 years later, and it is out there in very large numbers and being utilized in a real way.”
PackBot is rugged and light enough to be deployed by a single person. Its interchangeable, modular payload capabilities can be easily adapted to a variety of missions.
