Robohub.org
 

DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals begin


by
05 June 2015



share this:
drc-getting-ready_800_394_80

The DARPA Robotic Challenge Finals at the Pomona Fairgrounds is a far bigger event than I imagined. Four sets like this one plus a stage, a grandstand full of people and an exposition hall with 80+ exhibitors!

If you study the picture (click to enlarge) you can see the whole process that each of the 24 participating teams must go through:

  • The robot gets loaded into the drivers seat of an AGV under the white awning. It then drives itself down an obstacle course to the red door at the bottom right of the picture.
  • Then the robot dismounts the vehicle and opens and goes through the red door.
  • Then it moves past some electrical panels and finds a valve which it must turn sufficient to close it.
  • It then moves over to the black circle and chooses a tool or tools from the shelf to carve out a hole in the drywall.
  • It then returns the tools to the shelf and walks or climbs over the rubble through the doorway to the stairs.
  • And the final task is to climb the stairs.
  • If it’s able to do each task all within an hour it gets a lot of points.
  • The three teams with the highest point counts get the big bucks: $2 million; $1 million and $500,000.

It all starts Friday at 8 am at the Pomona Fairgrounds.

This is a big story with implications well beyond the contest aspects. I’ll be writing about it over the next few days. This is just a teaser as to what it’s all about.



tags: , ,


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.





Related posts :



#ICML2025 outstanding position paper: Interview with Jaeho Kim on addressing the problems with conference reviewing

  15 Sep 2025
Jaeho argues that the AI conference peer review crisis demands author feedback and reviewer rewards.

Apertus: a fully open, transparent, multilingual language model

  11 Sep 2025
EPFL, ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) released Apertus today, Switzerland’s first large-scale, open, multilingual language model.

Robots to the rescue: miniature robots offer new hope for search and rescue operations

  09 Sep 2025
Small two-wheeled robots, equipped with high-tech sensors, will help to find survivors faster in the aftermath of disasters.

#IJCAI2025 distinguished paper: Combining MORL with restraining bolts to learn normative behaviour

and   04 Sep 2025
The authors introduce a framework for guiding reinforcement learning agents to comply with social, legal, and ethical norms.

Researchers are teaching robots to walk on Mars from the sand of New Mexico

  02 Sep 2025
Researchers are closer to equipping a dog-like robot to conduct science on the surface of Mars

Engineering fantasy into reality

  26 Aug 2025
PhD student Erik Ballesteros is building “Doc Ock” arms for future astronauts.

RoboCup@Work League: Interview with Christoph Steup

and   22 Aug 2025
Find out more about the RoboCup League focussed on industrial production systems.

Interview with Haimin Hu: Game-theoretic integration of safety, interaction and learning for human-centered autonomy

and   21 Aug 2025
Hear from Haimin in the latest in our series featuring the 2025 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants.



 

Robohub is supported by:




Would you like to learn how to tell impactful stories about your robot or AI system?


scicomm
training the next generation of science communicators in robotics & AI


 












©2025.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence