After the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials ended last December and Team SCHAFT emerged victorious, there was a rumor going around that Google, which had acquired SCHAFT just months earlier, wasn’t going to allow the team to remain in the competition. Some observers speculated that Google was apparently reluctant to accept funding from DARPA and establish ties with the U.S. military (DARPA is an agency of the Department of Defense). Today, DARPA announced that, contrary to the rumor, SCHAFT is staying in the DRC.
Read more by Evan Ackerman and Erico Guizzo on Automaton.