The research wing of Pentagon will be hosting bipedal automatons from 5 different countries which include China, along with their local contributions in a contest for testing their capabilities of assisting in situations of stimulated disaster.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or nicknamed as Darpa, on Thursday disclosed the 25 teams who are participating in June for a $2 million prize for the winner, racing at a gradual pace, against the clock to execute activities such as driving a car, climbing a ladder and turning off a valve.
This upcoming Darpa Robotic Challenge is the latest in a series of contests architected to arouse interests from companies and academia for the development of the revolutionary technology, along with preceding events dedicated to unmanned vehicles and self-healing computers which are capable of defending themselves against cyber-attacks.
This race-off between the these two-legged robots with 5 to 6 feet of height, is one of the most impatiently waited for events, given the extensive operation of partially autonomous machineries in industrial production and hefty investments, for developing new commercial and military purposes.
Last Thursday, in Charleston S.C., some of the 25 teams were having a test runs and having been short of external cables and power packs which they have used up in December 2013 run though. This time they are relying on internal batteries and radio communication which will be sporadically switching off while leaving them to ‘think’ for themselves.
The trial run on Thursday has taken place without much off of public exposure but the actual contest in Pamona, California in June 2015 will be open for all.
The 25 teams is inclusive of 11 belonging from the U.S., 5 from Japan 3 from South Korea and 3 from Germany and entries from Hong Kong Italy and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Gill Pratt, Darpa’s program manager for the robot contest said, “The diverse participation indicates not only a general interest in robotics, but also the priority many governments are placing on furthering robotic technology.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing how the teams ensure the robustness of their robots against falls, strategically manage battery power, and build enough partial autonomy into the robots to complete the challenge tasks despite DARPA deliberately degrading the communication links between robots and operators,” said Pratt.
Darpa’s mission is to promote high-risk, high-reward endeavors, and robots that can think for themselves stay in their youth, which would make their contestants more toddler in comparison to the Terminator.
