Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Robot Invasion! DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals In LA This Weekend

Fans of the huge advances being made in robotics will not want to miss the finals of the three year long, DARPA Robotics Challenge, which is happening this weekend at the Pomona Fairplex. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) says it will be running the final competition for $3.5M in prize money, to spur the creation of robots which can assist humans in responding to natural and man made disasters. The robots in the competition are humanoid-like (think Robby the Robot), and intended to assist humans in things like earthquakes and tsunamis, and was launched as a response to the 2011 tsunami in Japan. DARPA has had good success with its robot competitions in the past; the agency's DARPA Grand Challenge, first held in 2004, has been credited with kickstarting the development of self driving cars, such as those which have been advanced by Google. DARPA's robot challenge is open to the public.

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