Darpa Robotics Challenge Finals 2015: Meet The International Field Of 25 Competing For $3.5M In Prizes

The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is gearing up for the ultimate robot battle royale. Darpa announced the field of competitors for its Robotics Challenge Finals 2015. The 25 teams are competing for $3.5 million in prizes and include groups from China, Italy, the U.S., Germany and Japan.

The Darpa Robotics Challenge Trials 2014 was dominated by a little robot-that-could named Schaft. The robot was the latest acquisition in a buying spree from Google that saw the tech giant purchase Schaft Inc. and Boston Dynamics. The DRC Finals 2015 will be held June 5-6, 2015, and the 25 teams will compete in a series of tasks that mimic real-world disaster scenarios. "The goal of the DRC is to generate groundbreaking research and development in hardware and software that will enable future robots, in tandem with human counterparts, to perform the most hazardous activities in disaster zones, thus reducing casualties and saving lives," Darpa explains. First prize is $2 million, the second place team earns $1 million and third place earns $500,000.

For the challenge, the teams either created robots or developed software that will be used to control Boston Dynamics' upgraded Atlas humanoid robot, which was funded in part by Darpa. Each of the teams had to submit videos that showed their robots could interact with an emergency shut-off switch, walk 10 meters without stumbling, rotate a valve 360 degrees, climb over a barrier and go from a prone position to an upright position.

Most of the robots are bipedal designs that are humanoid in appearance, but there are a few interesting design choices. Tartan Rescue's Chimp (CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform) finished in third place in the 2013 Darpa Robotics Challenge Trials has longer arms and uses tank-like tracks to move. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory takes the ape design to the next level with RoboSimian, which features four limbs that can be used for a variety of purposes and increased stability. Team NimbRo Rescue has a design similar to "Wall-E" or NASA's Curiosity Rover.

The full list of participants can be viewed below.

Germany

• Team Hector (Technische Universität Darmstadt)
• Team NimbRo Rescue (University of Bonn)

Hong Kong

• Team HKU (The University of Hong Kong)

Italy

• Team Walk-Man (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa; University of Pisa)

Japan

• Team Aero (University of Tokyo)
• Team AIST-NEDO (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo)
• Team HRP2-Tokyo (University of Tokyo)
• Team NEDO-Hydra (University of Tokyo)
• Team NEDO-JSK (University of Tokyo; Chiba Institute of Technology; Osaka University; Kobe University)

China

• Team Intelligent Pioneer (Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changzhou)

South Korea

• Team Robotis (Robotis, Seoul)
• Team SNU (Seoul National University)

United States

• Team DRC-Hubo @ UNLV (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
• Team Grit (Grit Robotics, Grand Junction, Colo.; Colorado Mesa University, Grand Junction, Colo.; AutonomouStuff, LLC, Morton, Ill.; Harbrick, Moscow, Idaho)

The complete field of 25 will include 11 returning teams that qualified based on points received from the DRC 2013 Trials.

• Tartan Rescue (Carnegie Mellon University, National Robotics Engineering Center, Pittsburgh)
• Team IHMC Robotics (Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition, Pensacola, Fla.)
• Team Kaist (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea)
• Team MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
• Team RoboSimian (NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.)
• Team THOR (University of California, Los Angeles; University of Pennsylvania)
• Team TracLabs (TRACLabs, Inc., Webster, Texas)
• Team Trooper (Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories, Cherry Hill, N.J., Rensselaer Polytechnic University, Troy, N.Y.; University of Pennsylvania)
• Team Valor (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.)
• Team ViGir (TORC Robotics, Blacksburg, Va.; Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.; Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore.)
• Team WPI-CMU (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Mass.)