PAMONA, Calif., June 6 (UPI) -- The second day of the DARPA Robotics Challenge continues as the next half of competing teams face a grueling eight-task mission similar to what a disaster situation might entail.
The competition, which started Friday morning, has teams from around the world coming together to display their work. The competing 25 teams must successfully complete the tasks -- which consists of driving a vehicle, exiting said vehicle, opening a door and entering a building, locating and closing a valve, cutting through a wall, removing rubble/navigating tough terrain, climbing stairs, and a surprise task -- in under an hour.
Teams are expected to take risks Saturday, as it is the last day of the challenge. Winners will be announced that night at 7 pm. Each team is competing for a hefty prize: first place winners receive $2 million; second place, $1 million; and third, $500,000.
As of Friday evening, the top three competitors were Tartan Rescue, Team Nimbro Rescue and Team Robosimian.
Related
Friday's competition proved that all the tasks, although simple for a human, are extremely tricky for a robot. However, when a bot successfully, say, struts through the threshold of a makeshift building, it's a extremely important leap for science and technology.
Many teams decided to switch up the order of the tasks -- opting to skip the wall task and moving to the surprise task first. The wall task involves handling and operating a power drill, and get extremely difficult, so competitors decided it may be worth returning to once the other tasks were finished.
Plenty of robots fell over, too, and their fumbles provided a humorous break for spectators -- who spent the day watching the entries complete tasks at a snail's pace. (A brief mash-up of Friday's robo-falls can be found here.) A lot of the robots that fell reportedly did not break -- at least not very much. When one fell, its team would have to write it (a 10-minute penalty) and it was back on its feet in no time. Robots can try to get up after a fall, but many teams decided a manual reset may be a safer option, as some robots can become damaged in their efforts to save themselves.
IEEE Spectrum observes that robots that roll instead of walk have a significant advantage in the competition. Since walking bots tended to fall so much, the rolling types stuck out due to their stability and faster movements.
A livestream of the competition is available on the DARPA Robotics Challenge website.
