Robot contest seeks truck-driving handy-droid for disasters

Wanted:Adaptablerobotto help out indisaster zones and other danger areas. Must beagile,handy with tools, and competent behind the wheel.

The U.S. military is promising a $2-million prize for a team that can develop a robot that can help out in disasterssuch as nuclear accidents by driving vehicles and using human tools to fix and replace equipment.

The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency announced this week that it is holding a contest to developrobots with human-like abilities and have them compete in disaster-response challenges in December 2013 or December 2014. The contestants are todemonstrate that their robots can:

• Drive a utility vehicle.
• Travel across rubble without the vehicle.
• Remove debris blocking an entryway.
• Open a door and enter a building.
• Climb an industrial ladder and cross an industrial walkway.
• Use a tool to break through a concrete panel.
• Find and close a valve near a leaking pipe.
• Replace equipment such as a cooling pump.

Robots have already been used to defuse explosives, to help out in the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster in Japan and in search and rescue operations such as those that took place in Japan after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake last year.

"The work of the global robotics community brought us to this point robots do save lives, do increase efficiencies and do lead us to consider new capabilities," said Gill Pratt, DARPA program manager, in a statement. "What we need to do now is move beyond the state of the art."

DARPA said it is hoping to encourage the development of adaptable robots that can perceive their environment and make decisions more independently. These machines should alsocan demonstrate mobility, dexterity, strength and endurance in "an environment designed for human use but degraded due to a disaster."

The agency is providing grants of $375 ,000 to $3 million each to teams interested in competing to help them develop the necessary hardware and software. Teams also have the option of developing hardware and/or software for the robot at their own expense.

The teams will compete for a single $2-million prize.