DARPA Robotics Challenge

The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) is a competition where systems & software teams compete to build robots that can assist humans in responding to man-made and natural disasters. The finals will be held June 5-6, 2015 at Fairplex in Pomona, California.

Participants represent various international robotics research and development organizations. These organizations are collaborating to create software, hardware, sensors as well as human-machine control interfaces that will allow their robots to finish a series of challenging tasks chosen by DARPA.

Three Events

Three DRC events focus on software and hardware:

• Virtual Robotics Challenge (June 2013): tests the ability of software teams to efficiently guide a simulated robot through 3 tasks in a virtual atmosphere.
• DRC Trials (December 2013): Mobility, manipulation, dexterity, perception, and operator control mechanisms are being tested by guiding robots through eight physical tasks.
• DRC Finals (June 5-6, 2015): Robots have to attempt a circuit of consecutive physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators.

The winning team receives a $2 million prize.

Objective DRC

It is expected that the DRC technologies will revolutionize the field of robotics while promoting the development of robots that are capable of operating in dangerous disaster zones.

An important objective of the DRC is to initiate groundbreaking research as well as development in software and hardware that will allow future robots to carry out the most dangerous activities in disaster zones, thereby saving many lives.

Key Functions

DARPA aims at developing robots that are capable of performing four key functions.

• Mobility and dexterity to maneuver in the degraded environments typical of disaster zones;
• Ability to manipulate and use a diverse assortment of tools designed for humans;
• Ability to be operated by humans who have had little to no robotics training;
• Partial autonomy in task-level decision-making based on operator commands and sensor inputs