Robots have competed in a U.S. military sponsored competition to determine which among the participants can work in places too dangerous for humans, according to MSN News.
The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which funded basic science research for the Internet and global positioning satellites, sponsored the Robotics Challenge. DARPA hopes that such competition will spur development and advancements in the field of robotics.
Launched in 2011, the competition was launched in response to the nuclear meltdown that took place in Fukushima, Japan. The Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant was hit by a massive tsunami in which nearly 160,000 people were forced to flee.
The challenge was launched in 2011 in response to the meltdown of Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant after it was hit by a massive earthquake-spawned tsunami. Nearly 160,000 people were forced to flee the area.
In the event of the meltdown, backup power systems need to cool the power plant reactor. However, the systems failed and Tokyo Electric Power Company's emergency team to go into the power plant building but failed because of the intense radiation.
DARPA responded to Fukushima's meltdown by sending its robots designed to disarm improvised explosives, but by the time the trained workers arrived it was too late prevent the meltdown.
"What we realized was ... these robots couldn't do anything other than observe," Gill Pratt, program manager for the DARPA Robotics Challenge, told MSN News. "What they needed was a robot to go into that reactor building and shut off the valves."
The two-day trials were held at South Florida professional race car track. The participating robots faced obstacles designed to mimic the challenges following a disaster - cutting through a reinforced concrete wall, navigating debris-strewn terrain and locating and turning off leaking valves.
During the trials, DARPA officials also disrupted the link between robots and their operators to further simulate reality.
The eight teams with the highest scores will be awarded $1 million in funding to prepare for the competition's final round in late 2014. The winner will take $2 million.
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