The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will be holding a trial for seventeen different teams of robot builders trying to determine which robot would be best used as an emergency first responder as part of the Robotics Challenge Trials  which run from Dec. 21-22 at Florida's Homestead-Miami Speedway.

DARPA started off with hundreds of teams trying to win the contest, but now only 17 robots remain, 13 of which are directly funded by the government project. After the next round of trials eight robots will be selected by DARPA to move on to the final round of trials and receive additional funding until the DRC Finals in 2014 award $2 million to the winning team. The final eight robots will determine a baseline for what robots can do as part of an emergency response taskforce.

Dr. Gill Pratt, DARPA's Robotics Challenge program manager told the Department of Defense the goals of the contest and why the project is important to future disaster relief efforts:

"The purpose of the program is to develop technology that can help make us much more robust to natural and manmade disasters," Pratt explained...In particular, we're looking at robotic technology that can allow us to mitigate the extent of a disaster during the first hours and days while the disaster is still unfolding."

The robots must fit several criteria during the contest. The robots must be able to work in area designed for people, such as a office building or home. The robots must be able to maneuver around these environments as they degenerate, and must be dexterous enough to operate tools ranging from screwdrivers to fire engines. Finally the robots must have an improved human-to-robot interface so that rescue workers not well versed in robotics can use the robots.

Dr. Pratt stated that DARPA started the program after the 2011 accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station, which could have been contained if only robotic workers were available:

"During the first 24 hours there...if only human beings had been able to go into the reactor buildings and vent built-up gas that was accumulating inside the reactors, the explosions that occurred might have been prevented and the disaster would not have been as severe."

All the different robots show promise, including Atlas, who is pictured above. Atlas was funded by the Defense Department and built by Boston Dynamics. These robots may someday lead to advanced models which can rescue humans in disasters and prevent disasters by entering hazardous areas and fixing the problem directly.