Surrogate, nicknamed "Surge," is a robot designed and built at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It has an upright spine, two arms and a head. Surrogate stands about 4.5 feet tall (1.4 meters) and weighs about 200 pounds (90.7 kilograms). Its strength is in handling objects, and its flexible spine allows for extra manipulation capabilities.

Surrogate received support from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about robotics at JPL, including involvement with the DARPA Robotics Challenge, see http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm.