Team HKU prepares for DARPA Robotics Challenge

The video recorded the preparation made by team HKU prior to the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in the lab of the Advanced Robotics Initiative of The University of Hong Kong. The video shows how did the team HKU prepare and test the robot system in the lab. Team HKU was awarded twelfth place in the competition (DRC Trials).

The DRC is a competition of robot systems and software teams eyeing to develop robots capable of assisting humans in responding to natural and man-made disasters. The competition was designed to be extremely difficult. Participating teams, representing some of the most advanced robotics research and development organizations in the world, are working within a very short timeline to develop the hardware, software, sensors, and human-machine control interfaces that will enable their robots to complete in a series of challenge tasks selected by DARPA to test the robots reaction/response to the disaster. All the three DRC events place equal emphasis in testing the hardware and software of the robots

• the Virtual Robotics Challenge held in June 2013 tested the software teams’ ability to effectively guide a simulated robot through three sample tasks in a virtual environment;

• the DRC Trials held in December 20-21, 2013 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, where all teams are required to command/control their robots through eight individuals. These physical tasks tested the mobility, manipulation, dexterity, perception, and operator control mechanisms;

• the DRC Finals held on 5-6 June 2015 required robots to undergo a series of continuous physical tasks, with degraded communications between the robots and their operators; The South Korean team has won the USD2 million top prize.