DARPA Robotics Competition Held at NASCAR Circuit

DARPA launched a disaster-response robotics competition on Dec. 21, 2013, at Homestead-Miami Speedway. The two-day competition had robots perform simple tasks, such as opening a door. About 250 DARPA staff members prepared the task equipment, and 16 teams took part.

The competition tested robots on tasks envisioned for disaster sites. It was important because it allowed the robots to be compared under the same conditions on basic actions, such as opening a door and walking a short distance, showing what they could do well and where they fell short. DARPA said the evaluation results would help developers focus their improvements ahead of the next test.