With the Pentagon-backed competition DARPA Robotics Challenge round the corner, teams have geared up making the final preparations to compete for $3.5m worth of prizes. The robotic teams will be contesting to develop machines that can carry out a series of disaster-related tasks in the shortest time possible.

The final event will be hosted on June 5-6 by the DARPA research unit at a location near Los Angeles, California.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) will test the inventions on eight tasks in a circuit, including driving a car, getting out of the car, opening and walking through a door, opening a valve, using a drill to cut a hole drawn onto a wall, crossing a debris-filled terrain, climbing up steps and above all a mystery task which would be disclosed to the teams on Friday itself.

Each team will be given two attempts to complete the tasks in an hour time where the robots can be guided by remote but specific movements are not allowed to be controlled.

Dr. Gill Pratt, Manager of the DARPA challenge, said, “It is, in my estimation, 10 times harder than before”. He added that neither any safety belays will be allowed nor the use of any power cords is permitted and so the robot has to energize using batteries. He explained that even the wireless link would be manipulated to increase difficulty levels.

The contest was launched three years back by DARPA with an aim to develop exemplary humanoid robot capable of tackling real world challenges.