The DRC is a competition of robot systems and software teams vying to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters. It was designed to be extremely difficult. Participating teams, representing some of the most advanced robotics research and development organizations in the world, are collaborating and innovating on a very short timeline to develop the hardware, software, sensors, and human-machine control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete a series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA for their relevance to disaster response.
Technologies resulting from the DRC will transform the field of robotics and catapult forward development of robots featuring task-level autonomy that can operate in the hazardous, degraded conditions common in disaster zones.
Darpa Challenge Tasks
RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1997. The aim is to promote robotics and AI research, by offering a publicly appealing, but formidable challenge.
The official goal of the project:
"By the middle of the 21st century, a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players shall win a soccer game, complying with the official rules of FIFA, against the winner of the most recent World Cup.
In the Humanoid League, autonomous robots with a human-like body plan and human-like senses play soccer against perception and world modeling is not simplified by using non-human like range sensors. In addition to soccer competitions technical challenges take place. Dynamic walking, running, and kicking the ball while maintaining balance, visual perception of the ball, other players, and the field, self-localization, and team play are among the many research issues investigated in the Humanoid League.
