DARPA robotics challenge competing countries (Photo : DARPA)
The odds favor the United States winning most if not all of the three top prizes at the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals Competition and Technology Expo.
That's because there are 12 U.S. teams out of 24 teams competing for the three top prizes amounting to US$3.5 million.
Japan has the second most number of teams (5) while South Korea has three teams. Germany has two teams while Italy and Hong Kong have one team apiece.
DRC will be held from June 5 to 6 (8:00 am to 6:00 pm PDT) at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. The event is free and open to the public.
To watch DRC on the internet, go to live.curiositystream.com on June 5 from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm ET and on June 6 from 11:00 am to 9:30 pm ET. The webcast will be free of charge.
The DRC Finals is ends a three-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA program to develop robots that can assist humans respond to natural and man-made disasters. It was launched following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan. DRC's goal is to better prepare humans to confront the threats posed by future disasters.
The finals will require robots to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.
It was designed to be very difficult. Competing teams from some of the most advanced robotics research and development organizations in the world are collaborating and innovating on a very short timeline to develop the hardware, software, sensors and human-machine control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete a series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA for their relevance to disaster response.
The winning team will receive a US$2 million grand prize. DARPA plans to award US$1 million to the runner-up and US$500,000 to the third-place team.
DARPA said technologies resulting from the DRC will transform the field of robotics and catapult forward development of robots featuring task-level autonomy that can operate in the hazardous, degraded conditions common in disaster zones.
