Twenty-five international robotics teams have qualified for the final round of the 2015 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Robotics Challenge to be held in Pomona, California on June 5 and 6.
Established by DARPA in October 2012, the prestigious competition allows engineers from around the world to showcase their talents in developing robots capable of helping humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters.
"Humanitarian assistance and disaster response is one of the 10 primary missions of the U.S. Defense Department," DARPA project manager and DRC coordinator Gill Pratt said.
"When we go and help with disasters around the world, it helps if we have a way of mitigating the severity of the disaster as it is evolving."
The participating teams must develop the software, hardware, sensors, and interfaces that will allow humans to effectively control the robots.
The tasks involved in the DRC are made to be extremely difficult in order to find the best robot design that can perform in different scenarios.
DAPRA has advocated for the use of robots in situations that would be too dangerous for humans to be in, such as the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan in 2011.
The high levels of radiation prevented human response teams to breach the damages power plant, but DARPA officials believe an advanced robot would be able to withstand such hazardous conditions.
Fukushima disaster as well as other similar events inspired DARPA to launch the DARPA Robotics Challenge.
"Robots for disaster response have to be able to adapt to the austere circumstances around themselves," Pratt said.
"As an example, this could be different debris that has fallen down on the ground, difficulty gaining traction on stairs and (moving) through areas ruined by fires or chemicals."
One of DARPA's prize competitions has allowed for the development of self-driving cars. The advanced car designs have now been approved for use in the city of Mountain View according to Rick Weiss, a spokesman for DARPA.
The winning teams in this year's DRC competition will receive $3.5 million in total prizes. The champion will get $2 million, the second place team will get $1 million and the third place team will get $500,000.
