Self-Funded Teams Join DARPA’s Pending Robotic Challenge

   
       
           
       
       
           
       
   

Photo courtesy DARPA.

By Brett Davis



Four self-funded teams, including two international teams, will join 13 DARPA-funded teams in DARPA’s first Robotic Challenge Trials later this month in Florida, the agency announced on 4 Dec.



The four teams are Team Chairon from Utah, Team KAIST from South Korea, Team Mojavaton from Colorado and Team Intelligent Pioneer from China.



They will go up against 13 teams that won DARPA backing from their participation in an earlier, simulated version of the trials.



The challenge is aimed at developing robots that can help in the wake of disasters, including by going places where people can’t go.



“The purpose is really to develop technology to make us much more robust to both natural and manmade disasters,” Gill Pratt, program manager of the effort at DARPA, said in a phone conference.



In such a case, the robots would be operating in an area built for humans and would need to be able to move like people and operate tools built for people, including everything from fire hoses to trucks.



At the event, scheduled for 20-21 Dec. in Homestead, Fla., the teams will move through a series of challenges, including going through various types of doors, cutting holes through walls without damaging surrounding infrastructure, closing valves and climbing ladders.



They won’t be moving through them quickly, however. Pratt said the current state of technology is for robots that have the dexterity of a one-year-old child, and each robot will be given half an hour to complete each task.



“We’re trying to understand what the state of the art is right now,” Pratt said. “What you’re going to see is robots moving quite slowly.”



The teams are divided into three tracks. Track A teams are developing their own hardware but have DARPA funding to develop software. Track B teams are being furnished with a government-funded humanoid robot, the Atlas, built by Boston Dynamics, and will develop their own software for it.



Track C teams were selected for funding after the virtual challenge and will also be furnished the Atlas and for software development. Track D teams are self-funded.



The goal is to narrow the field of DARPA-backed teams to eight, which would then be able to take part in a competition next year. Pratt says that although this year’s event may not be that exciting to watch, it should develop rapidly in the same way DARPA’s Grand Challenges and Urban Challenge did for self-driving cars.



For a complete list of teams, and for more information on the event, go to: http://www.theroboticschallenge.org/teamlist.