Australian team among eight grand finalists in robot Olympics
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E-mail Xinhua, September 10, 2021
CANBERRA, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- A team from Australia's national science agency will represent the country at the "robot Olympics."
Experts from around the world have spent the last three years competing in the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Challenge.
Teams have been eliminated from the competition each year, with only eight remaining to contest the grand final in Louisville, Kentucky.
Among the grand finalists is a team from Data61, the data science arm of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).
Navinda Kottege, group leader at Data61's Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group, said the team was excited to be one of the final eight teams.
"In the world of robotics, these challenges are like our Olympics," he said in a media release on Friday.
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time any Australian team has made it to a DARPA Challenge final, and we're very proud to showcase Australia's capabilities in this area on the world stage."
Due to Australia's strict coronavirus travel restrictions, the Data61 team will appear via telepresence, with U.S.-based partners from CSIRO spinout Emesent and the Georgia Institute of Technology handling the work on the ground.
Challenges in the grand final are based on real-world scenarios.
Six autonomous robots from each team will have to locate items such as phones, backpacks and models representing lost or injured humans throughout three underground courses.
They are also required to report back on environmental conditions such as pockets of gas.
The winning team will receive 2 million U.S. dollars to continue research and development.
Breakthroughs previously discovered for the DARPA Challenge have helped improve safety and efficiency in the mining industry.
"Having a fleet of driving, walking and flying robots that are achieving complex missions autonomously and collaboratively is a major technological milestone and an important step towards using autonomous systems for saving lives and helping people," Emesent co-founder Farid Kendoul said. Enditem
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