DARPA Robotics Challenge Gears Up For Finale
The latest highlights from DARPA's years-long robotics competition show us just how creative we can be. Here's what you need to know in advance of the grand finale in June.
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The Robotics Challenge is among the supercool high-tech projects hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
An ongoing competition that began in October 2012, the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) has its grand finale in June. Disaster response is the theme of the competition.
Each DRC team -- typically composed of engineers from top universities and technology companies -- built a robot to compete in a variety of advanced challenges that simulate responses to man-made or natural disasters. The teams are competing for significant prizes, including a grand prize of $2 million. DARPA has also announced that it expects to award $1 million to the second-place winner and $500,000 to the third-place team. With a reported budget of $95 million, the DRC is perhaps one of the most significant initiatives DARPA has recently undertaken.
The competition was inspired by the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, which came in the wake of major earthquakes and tsunamis. The nuclear meltdown highlighted the urgent need for remotely operated robots that can go into disaster areas and otherwise perform under difficult conditions to mitigate damage and save lives.
"The state of the art is not capable of having robots do work on their own in these dangerous environments," said Dr. Gill Pratt, DARPA's defense sciences program manager, in a 2014 press statement. By crowdsourcing this problem to top engineers in academia and the private sector via the DRC, DARPA hopes to eventually rectify this issue.
When the finals are held June 5-6 in Pomona, Calif., 25 DRC teams will showcase their contenders. The DRC finals coincide with the DRC Expo, featuring the latest developments in robotics, unmanned aerial systems, and disaster response technologies.
Whether you're an armchair tech enthusiast or a diehard robotics geek, there's a lot of good stuff to know about the upcoming DRC finals. You'll get the highlights on the following pages. Once you've reviewed the best that the DARPA Robotics Challenge has to offer, visit the comments section below and tell us what you think the future holds for robotics.
The competition is not restricted to US participants; other nations will be represented at DRC, including China, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. The non-US teams do not receive DARPA funding to help them with their entries, although any entrants are eligible to win the prize money. Some observers have expressed concerns about the international nature of the contest, noting that any team that has not received DARPA funding is not likely to share their technology with the US.
Such concerns are dismissed by DARPA: "As [robotics] technology becomes increasingly global, cooperating … in areas where there is mutual concern, such as disaster response and homeland security, stands to benefit every country involved," Dr. Pratt told CNBC.
Seeing the best of what other countries have to offer could inspire participants from all nations to step up efforts to develop potentially life-saving disaster recovery robotics.
During a 2013 round of the DRC, competitors far surpassed DARPA's expectations -- with four teams each scoring more than half of the available points.
So, in a twist, DARPA decided to make the finals more challenging than originally planned.
Each competing robot will begin the finals in a vehicle. From there, it will have to travel to a "simulated disaster building," where it will have to open doors, travel across obstacles (including rubble and stairs), and operate tools. This has long been the plan, apparently. But now, according to Dr. Pratt, the robots will have a "surprise task" awaiting them at the end of the challenge. He declined to elaborate further. (If you have any ideas, let us know in the comments section below).
If you know (or are) a high school student with an interest in robotics, you'll want to hurry up and click on this link for information about DRC's side contest for American high school students.
DARPA's Robots4Us contest invites 9th to 12th graders in the US to take on the role of futurist. Participants -- who can compete in teams of up to three people -- are instructed to submit brief videos (two to three minutes long) "describing their vision of the roles they'd like to see robots play in future society." The submissions must cite current and potential developments in robotics and the effects they will have. The judging criteria include creativity of the ideas expressed, the clarity of their expression, and the technical quality of the video.
The prize for five lucky individuals (and their chaperones) will be a free trip to the DRC finals. They will also get to participate in a June 7 post-contest panel discussion -- alongside experts on robotics and society -- to discuss and share their ideas.
Complete details and rules are available on the official Robots4Us website. The deadline for submissions is April 1.
If you don't win the contest -- or if you aren't eligible because you're not an American high school student -- don't sweat it too much. The DRC finals are free for the public to attend.
If you know (or are) a high school student with an interest in robotics, you'll want to hurry up and click on this link for information about DRC's side contest for American high school students.
DARPA's Robots4Us contest invites 9th to 12th graders in the US to take on the role of futurist. Participants -- who can compete in teams of up to three people -- are instructed to submit brief videos (two to three minutes long) "describing their vision of the roles they'd like to see robots play in future society." The submissions must cite current and potential developments in robotics and the effects they will have. The judging criteria include creativity of the ideas expressed, the clarity of their expression, and the technical quality of the video.
The prize for five lucky individuals (and their chaperones) will be a free trip to the DRC finals. They will also get to participate in a June 7 post-contest panel discussion -- alongside experts on robotics and society -- to discuss and share their ideas.
Complete details and rules are available on the official Robots4Us website. The deadline for submissions is April 1.
If you don't win the contest -- or if you aren't eligible because you're not an American high school student -- don't sweat it too much. The DRC finals are free for the public to attend.
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