TED2012
Regina Dugan: From mach-20 glider to hummingbird drone
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"What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects -- a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet -- that her agency has created by not worrying that they might fail. (Followed by a Q&A with TED's Chris Anderson)
Regina Dugan - Former director of DARPA
As director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Regina Dugan oversaw the US armed forces' innovation engine. Now she deploys the same research tactics at Google. Full bio
As director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Regina Dugan oversaw the US armed forces' innovation engine. Now she deploys the same research tactics at Google. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:15
You should be nice
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to nerds.
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In fact, I'd go so far as to say,
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if you don't already have a nerd in your life,
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you should get one.
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I'm just saying.
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Scientists and engineers
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change the world.
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I'd like to tell you
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about a magical place called DARPA
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where scientists and engineers
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defy the impossible
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and refuse to fear failure.
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Now these two ideas
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are connected more than you may realize,
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because when you remove the fear of failure,
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impossible things
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suddenly become possible.
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If you want to know how,
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ask yourself this question:
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What would you attempt to do
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if you knew you could not fail?
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If you really ask yourself
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this question,
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you can't help but feel uncomfortable.
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I feel a little uncomfortable.
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Because when you ask it,
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you begin to understand
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how the fear of failure constrains you,
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how it keeps us
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from attempting great things,
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and life gets dull,
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amazing things stop happening.
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Sure, good things happen,
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but amazing things
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stop happening.
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Now I should be clear,
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I'm not encouraging failure,
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I'm discouraging
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fear of failure.
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Because it's not failure itself
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that constrains us.
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The path to truly new,
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never-been-done-before things
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always has failure along the way.
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We're tested.
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And in part, that testing feels an appropriate part
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of achieving something great.
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Clemenceau said,
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"Life gets interesting when we fail,
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because it's a sign
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that we've surpassed ourselves."
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In 1895,
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Lord Kelvin declared
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that heavier-than-air flying machines
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were impossible.
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In October of 1903,
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the prevailing opinion
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of expert aerodynamicists
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was that maybe in 10 million years
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we could build an aircraft that would fly.
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And two months later on December 17th,
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Orville Wright powered the first airplane
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across a beach in North Carolina.
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The flight lasted 12 seconds
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and covered 120 feet.
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That was 1903.
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One year later,
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the next declarations of impossibilities began.
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Ferdinand Foch, a French army general
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credited with having one of the most original and subtle minds
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in the French army,
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said, "Airplanes are interesting toys,
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but of no military value."
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40 years later,
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aero experts coined the term transonic.
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They debated, should it have one S or two?
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You see, they were having trouble in this flight regime,
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and it wasn't at all clear
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that we could fly faster than the speed of sound.
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In 1947,
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there was no wind tunnel data
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beyond Mach 0.85.
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And yet,
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on Tuesday, October 14th, 1947,
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Chuck Yeager climbed into the cockpit
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of his Bell X-1
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and he flew
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towards an unknown possibility,
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and in so doing,
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he became the first pilot
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to fly faster than the speed of sound.
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Six of eight Atlas rockets
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blew up on the pad.
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After 11 complete mission failures,
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we got our first images from space.
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And on that first flight
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we got more data
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than in all U-2 missions combined.
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It took a lot of failures
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to get there.
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Since we took to the sky,
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we have wanted to fly
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faster and farther.
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And to do so,
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we've had to believe in impossible things.
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And we've had to refuse
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to fear failure.
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That's still true today.
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Today, we don't talk about flying transonically,
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or even supersonically,
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we talk about flying hypersonically --
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not Mach 2 or Mach 3, Mach 20.
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At Mach 20,
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we can fly from New York to Long Beach
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in 11 minutes and 20 seconds.
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At that speed,
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the surface of the airfoil
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is the temperature of molten steel --
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3,500 degrees Fahrenheit --
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like a blast furnace.
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We are essentially burning the airfoil
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as we fly it.
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And we are flying it,
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or trying to.
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DARPA's hypersonic test vehicle
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is the fastest maneuvering aircraft
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ever built.
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It's boosted to near-space
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atop a Minotaur IV rocket.
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Now the Minotaur IV has too much impulse,
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so we have to bleed it off
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by flying the rocket
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at an 89 degree angle of attack
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for portions of the trajectory.
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That's an unnatural act
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for a rocket.
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The third stage has a camera.
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We call it rocketcam.
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And it's pointed
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at the hypersonic glider.
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This is the actual rocketcam footage
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from flight one.
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Now to conceal the shape, we changed the aspect ratio a little bit.
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But this is what it looks like
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from the third stage of the rocket
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looking at the unmanned glider
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as it heads into the atmosphere
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back towards Earth.
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We've flown twice.
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In the first flight,
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no aerodynamic control of the vehicle.
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But we collected more hypersonic flight data
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than in 30 years
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of ground-based testing combined.
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And in the second flight,
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three minutes of fully-controlled,
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aerodynamic flight
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at Mach 20.
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We must fly again,
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because amazing, never-been-done-before things
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require that you fly.
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You can't learn to fly at Mach 20
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unless you fly.
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And while there's no substitute for speed,
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maneuverability is a very close second.
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If a Mach 20 glider takes 11 minutes and 20 seconds
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to get from New York to Long Beach,
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a hummingbird would take,
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well, days.
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You see, hummingbirds are not hypersonic,
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but they are maneuverable.
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In fact, the hummingbird is the only bird
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that can fly backwards.
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It can fly up, down,
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forwards, backwards,
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even upside-down.
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And so if we wanted to fly in this room
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or places where humans can't go,
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we'd need an aircraft
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small enough and maneuverable enough
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to do so.
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This is a hummingbird drone.
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It can fly in all directions,
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even backwards.
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It can hover and rotate.
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This prototype aircraft
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is equipped with a video camera.
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It weighs less than one AA battery.
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It does not eat nectar.
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In 2008,
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it flew for a whopping 20 seconds,
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a year later, two minutes,
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then six,
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eventually 11.
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Many prototypes crashed -- many.
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But there's no way
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to learn to fly like a hummingbird
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unless you fly.
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(Applause)
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It's beautiful, isn't it.
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Wow.
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It's great.
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Matt is the first ever hummingbird pilot.
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(Applause)
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Failure is part of creating
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new and amazing things.
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We cannot both fear failure
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and make amazing new things --
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like a robot
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with the stability of a dog on rough terrain,
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or maybe even ice;
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a robot that can run like a cheetah,
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or climb stairs like a human
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with the occasional clumsiness of a human.
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Or perhaps, Spider Man
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will one day be Gecko Man.
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A gecko can support
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its entire body weight
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with one toe.
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One square millimeter of a gecko's footpad
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has 14,000 hair-like structures
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called setae.
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They are used to help it grip to surfaces
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using intermolecular forces.
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Today we can manufacture structures
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that mimic the hairs of a gecko's foot.
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The result,
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a four-by-four-inch
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artificial nano-gecko adhesive.
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can support a static load
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of 660 pounds.
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That's enough to stick
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six 42-inch plasma TV's to your wall,
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no nails.
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So much for Velcro, right?
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And it's not just passive structures,
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it's entire machines.
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This is a spider mite.
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It's one millimeter long,
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but it looks like Godzilla
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next to these micromachines.
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In the world of Godzilla spider mites,
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we can make millions of mirrors,
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each one-fifth the diameter
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of a human hair,
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moving at hundreds of thousands of times per second
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to make large screen displays,
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so that we can watch movies like "Godzilla"
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in high-def.
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And if we can build machines
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at that scale,
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what about Eiffel Tower-like trusses
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at the microscale?
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Today we are making metals
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that are lighter than Styrofoam,
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so light
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they can sit atop a dandelion puff
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and be blown away
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with a wisp of air --
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so light
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that you can make a car that two people can lift,
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but so strong
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that it has the crash-worthiness of an SUV.
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From the smallest wisp of air
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to the powerful forces of nature's storms.
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There are 44 lightning strikes per second
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around the globe.
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Each lightning bolt heats the air
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to 44,000 degrees Fahrenheit --
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hotter than the surface of the Sun.
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What if we could use
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these electromagnetic pulses
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as beacons,
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beacons in a moving network
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of powerful transmitters?
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12:27
Experiments suggest
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that lightning could be the next GPS.
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Electrical pulses form the thoughts in our brains.
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Using a grid the size of your thumb,
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with 32 electrodes
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on the surface of his brain,
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Tim uses his thoughts
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to control an advanced prosthetic arm.
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And his thoughts
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made him reach for Katie.
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This is the first time
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a human has controlled a robot
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with thought alone.
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And it is the first time
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that Tim has held Katie's hand
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in seven years.
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That moment mattered
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to Tim and Katie,
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and this green goo
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may someday matter to you.
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This green goo
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is perhaps the vaccine that could save your life.
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It was made in tobacco plants.
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Tobacco plants
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can make millions of doses of vaccine
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in weeks instead of months,
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and it might just be
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the first healthy use of tobacco ever.
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And if it seems far-fetched
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that tobacco plants could make people healthy,
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what about gamers that could solve problems
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that experts can't solve?
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Last September,
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the gamers of Foldit
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solved the three-dimensional structure
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of the retroviral protease
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that contributes to AIDS in rhesus monkeys.
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Now understanding this structure
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is very important for developing treatments.
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For 15 years,
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it was unsolved
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in the scientific community.
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The gamers of Foldit
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solved it in 15 days.
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Now they were able to do so
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by working together.
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They were able to work together
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because they're connected by the Internet.
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And others, also connected to the Internet,
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used it as an instrument of democracy.
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And together
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they changed the fate of their nation.
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The Internet is home to two billion people,
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or 30 percent of the world's population.
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It allows us to contribute
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and to be heard
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as individuals.
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It allows us to amplify
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our voices and our power
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as a group.
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But it too had humble beginnings.
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In 1969, the internet was but a dream,
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a few sketches on a piece of paper.
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And then on October 29th,
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the first packet-switched message was sent
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from UCLA to SRI.
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The first two letters of the word "Login,"
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that's all that made it through --
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an L and an O --
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and then a buffer overflow crashed the system.
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(Laughter)
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Two letters,
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an L and an O,
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now a worldwide force.
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So who are these scientists and engineers
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at a magical place called DARPA?
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They are nerds,
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and they are heroes among us.
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They challenge existing perspectives
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at the edges of science
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and under the most demanding of conditions.
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They remind us
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that we can change the world
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if we defy the impossible
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and we refuse to fear failure.
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They remind us
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that we all have nerd power.
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Sometimes we just forget.
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You see, there was a time
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when you weren't afraid of failure,
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when you were a great artist or a great dancer
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and you could sing, you were good at math,
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you could build things, you were an astronaut,
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an adventurer, Jacques Cousteau,
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you could jump higher, run faster,
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kick harder than anyone.
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You believed in impossible things
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and you were fearless.
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You were totally and completely in touch
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with your inner superhero.
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Scientists and engineers
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can indeed change the world.
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So can you.
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You were born to.
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So go ahead,
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ask yourself,
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what would you attempt to do
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if you knew you could not fail?
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Now I want to say,
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this is not easy.
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It's hard to hold onto this feeling,
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really hard.
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I guess in some way,
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I sort of believe it's supposed to be hard.
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Doubt and fear always creep in.
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We think someone else, someone smarter than us,
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someone more capable,
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someone with more resources will solve that problem.
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But there isn't anyone else;
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there's just you.
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And if we're lucky,
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in that moment,
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someone steps into that doubt and fear,
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takes a hand and says,
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"Let me help you believe."
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Jason Harley did that for me.
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Jason started at DARPA
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on March 18th, 2010.
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He was with our transportation team.
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I saw Jason nearly every day,
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sometimes twice a day.
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And more so than most,
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he saw the highs and the lows,
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the celebrations and the disappointments.
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And on one particularly dark day for me,
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Jason sat down
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and he wrote an email.
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He was encouraging,
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but firm.
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And when he hit send,
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he probably didn't realize what a difference it would make.
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It mattered to me.
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In that moment
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and still today
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when I doubt,
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when I feel afraid,
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when I need to reconnect
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with that feeling,
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I remember his words,
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they were so powerful.
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Text: "There is only time enough to iron your cape
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and back to the skies for you."
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♫ Superhero, superhero. ♫
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♫ Superhero, superhero. ♫
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♫ Superhero, superhero. ♫
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♫ Superhero, superhero. ♫
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♫ Superhero, superhero. ♫
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19:18
Voice: Because that's what being a superhero is all about.
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19:24
RD: "There is only time enough
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to iron your cape
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and back to the skies for you."
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And remember,
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be nice to nerds.
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(Applause)
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Thank you. Thank you.
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(Applause)
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Chris Anderson: Regina, thank you.
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I have a couple of questions.
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So that glider of yours,
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the Mach 20 glider,
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the first one, no control, it ended up in the Pacific I think somewhere.
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RD: Yeah, yeah. It did. (CA: What happened on that second flight?)
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Yeah, it also went into the Pacific. (CA: But this time under control?)
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We didn't fly it into the Pacific.
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No, there are multiple portions of the trajectory
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that are demanding
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in terms of really flying at that speed.
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And so in the second flight,
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we were able to get three minutes
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of fully aerodynamic control of the vehicle before we lost it.
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20:34
CA: I imagine you're not planning to open up to passenger service
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from New York to Long Beach anytime soon.
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RD: It might be a little warm.
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CA: What do you picture that glider being used for?
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RD: Well our responsibility
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is to develop the technology for this.
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How it's ultimately used
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will be determined by the military.
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Now the purpose of the vehicle though,
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the purpose of the technology,
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is to be able to reach anywhere in the world
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in less than 60 minutes.
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CA: And to carry a payload
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of more than a few pounds? (RD: Yeah.)
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21:06
Like what's the payload it could carry?
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RD: Well I don't think we ultimately know what it will be, right.
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We've got to fly it first.
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CA: But not necessarily just a camera?
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RD: No, not necessarily just a camera.
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CA: It's amazing.
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The hummingbird?
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21:26
RD: Yeah?
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21:28
CA: I'm curious, you started your beautiful sequence on flight
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with a plane kind of trying to flap its wings
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and failing horribly,
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and there haven't been that many planes built since
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that flap wings.
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21:41
Why did we think that this was the time to go biomimicry
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and copy a hummingbird?
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21:46
Isn't that a very expensive solution
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for a small maneuverable flying object?
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21:52
RD: So I mean, in part,
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we wondered if it was possible to do it.
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And you have to revisit these questions
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over time.
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The folks at AeroVironment
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tried 300 or more different wing designs,
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12 different forms of the avionics.
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22:08
It took them 10 full prototypes
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to get something that would actually fly.
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22:12
But there's something really interesting
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about a flying machine
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that looks like something you'd recognize.
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22:20
So we often talk about stealth
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as a means for avoiding any type of sensing,
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but when things looks just natural,
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you also don't see them.
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CA: Ah. So it's not necessarily just the performance.
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It's partly the look. (RD: Sure.)
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It's actually, "Look at that cute hummingbird
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flying into my headquarters."
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(Laughter)
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Because I think, as well as the awe of looking at that,
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I'm sure some people here are thinking,
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technology catches up so quick,
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22:49
how long is it
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before some crazed geek with a little remote control
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flies one through a window of the White House?
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I mean, do you worry about the Pandora's box issue here?
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RD: Well look, our singular mission
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is the creation and prevention of strategic surprise.
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That's what we do.
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It would be inconceivable
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for us to do that work
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if we didn't make people excited and uncomfortable with the things that we do
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at the same time.
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It's just the nature of what we do.
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Now our responsibility
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is to push that edge.
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And we have to be, of course, mindful and responsible
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of how the technology is developed
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and ultimately used,
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but we can't simply close our eyes
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and pretend that it isn't advancing; it's advancing.
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CA: I mean, you're clearly a really inspiring leader.
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And you persuade people
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to go to these great feats of invention,
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23:46
but at a personal level,
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in a way I can't imagine doing your job.
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23:50
Do you wake up in the night sometimes,
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just asking questions
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about the possibly unintended consequences
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23:56
of your team's brilliance?
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23:58
RD: Sure.
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24:00
I think you couldn't be human
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if you didn't ask those questions.
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CA: How do you answer them?
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RD: Well I don't always have answers for them, right.
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I think that we learn
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as time goes on.
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24:16
My job is one of the most exhilarating jobs you could have.
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I work with some of the most amazing people.
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And with that exhilaration,
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comes a really deep sense
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of responsibility.
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24:32
And so you have on the one hand
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this tremendous lift
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24:37
of what's possible
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and this tremendous seriousness
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24:43
of what it means.
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CA: Regina, that was jaw-dropping, as they say.
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Thank you so much for coming to TED. (RD: Thank you.)
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24:51
(Applause)
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Regina Dugan - Former director of DARPAAs director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Regina Dugan oversaw the US armed forces' innovation engine. Now she deploys the same research tactics at Google.
Why you should listen
Businesswoman and technology developer Regina Dugan achieved national prominence when she became the first woman in charge of Darpa, the Pentagon's research arm. Dugan earned a reputation as a motivator and creative thinker, spurring non-traditional projects like a nationwide contest to find hidden balloons in order to test the power of social networks for intelligence gathering.
In a previous stint at the agency, Dugan investigated mine-detection technology, and her work wasn't limited to the lab. In Mozambique she drove a mine-clearing vehicle during a live detection exercise. Dugan currently is senior vice president at Motorola, where her mission is to advance the company's technology, which one day may include password tattoos. Ask her and she may show you hers.
Regina Dugan | Speaker | TED.com