Apelike Robot Dominates First Day of DARPA Robotics Competition

Team Tartan Rescue's CHIMP robot, from Carnegie Mellon University, took the lead on the first day of the DARPA robotics challenge.

(Image credit: DARPA)

POMONA, Calif. — Watching a robot competition can be incredibly exciting, but things tend to move at a glacial pace.

But that didn't stop hundreds of people from showing up Friday (June 5) to watch the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a two-day competition that pits robots against each other and the clock in a simulated disaster response mission. A robot from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is in the lead so far, after completing all eight of the challenge tasks successfully.

The competition, hosted by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, was inspired by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, triggered by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. After the tragedy, human workers were unable to go in and shut off a valve to prevent a gas explosion; but if they had been able to send in robots to do the job, the worst of the disaster may have been prevented, according to DARPA officials. [See Photos of the Robot Competitors in Action]

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The day started off slowly. None of the teams in the first round attempted the driving task, opting instead to walk or roll their way along that portion of the course. Team Aero, from Japan, wheeled most of the way down the sandy track, but tipped over. Even though it restarted from the beginning (with a time penalty), it never made it to the rest of the tasks. The robots from Team Valor (Virginia Tech), Team Grit (Colorado) and Team HKU (Hong Kong) all took a few steps, but either fell down or got stuck before the hour ran out. [Meet the Robot Finalists in the DARPA Challenge]

Things got more exciting when Team IHMC, from the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida, took the stage. Their robot, one of half a dozen Atlas robots built by the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company Boston Dynamics, successfully completed seven out of eight tasks — including a surprise task that involved pulling a lever — for a total of seven points. The bot was attempting to cross a pile of rubble when it tipped over and had to restart from an earlier part of the course. But it made it past the rubble the second time, to massive cheers. As it attempted the final task — climbing a set of stairs — it toppled over again, and then the time ran out.

The competition really heated up by the afternoon. The Worcester Polytechnic-Carnegie Mellon team, WPI-CMU, also completed seven tasks, including driving the vehicle and successfully exiting it. Later, Germany's Team Nimbro Rescue robot completed seven tasks in less than 35 minutes, wheeling its way into the lead. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Team, RoboSimian, put on an impressive performance with its hybrid design that allows it to alternate between moving on four-legs and wheels. The team from MIT also did well with its Atlas robot, despite a fall while getting out of the vehicle.

Tanya was a staff writer for Live Science from 2013 to 2015, covering a wide array of topics, ranging from neuroscience to robotics to strange/cute animals. She received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering from Brown University. She has previously written for Science News, Wired, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, the radio show Big Picture Science and other places. Tanya has lived on a tropical island, witnessed volcanic eruptions and flown in zero gravity (without losing her lunch!). To find out what her latest project is, you can visit her website.