Excerpted from ACM TechNews, Wednesday, April 11, 2012 Read the TechNews Online at: http://technews.acm.org J. Nicholas Hoover, DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots to Drive Into Disasters, *Information Week* 10 Apr 2012 The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the Robotics Challenge, which will offer a $2 million prize to anyone who can build a robot capable of navigating disaster-response scenarios and using human devices that range from hand tools to vehicles. The challenge aims to improve the ability of robots to navigate rough terrain at disaster sites, operate vehicles, and use common tools, as well as to make robot hardware and software development more accessible. As part of the challenge, robots will be required to complete several discrete tasks, including traveling across rubble, removing debris from a blocked entryway, climbing a ladder, and entering and driving a car. DARPA says it will provide "a robotic hardware platform with arms, legs, torso, and head" to some entrants, although robots in humanoid form are not required to enter the challenge. "For robots to be useful to [the U.S. Department of Defense], they need to offer gains in either physical protection or productivity," notes DARPA's Kaigham Gabriel. DARPA's announcement says the "proposed research should investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in science, devices, or systems." The challenge will take place in two phases and will finish at the end of 2014. http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054 ------------------------------