Japan's Schaft takes lead at Robot Olympics

(ECNS) -- A Japanese disaster-aid robot claimed top honors at the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials, while the team from China quit the event, which is a series of trials for robots designed to aid in disaster relief efforts, the Information Times said on Thursday.

The winner, HRP-2, a two-legged, 209-pound (95 kilograms) blue robot, was developed by Japanese company Schaft Inc.

The two-day trials put the robots through eight events that simulated the type of tasks a robot would need to perform after a disaster, including driving a vehicle through a designated course; traversing across uneven terrain and piles of rubble, and removing debris from a doorway. Schaft earned 27 points, while the second-place team IHMC Robotics earned 20.

Over 100 teams from countries including America, China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK) signed up for the competition hosted by the Pentagon's research unit Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA selected 17 contestants, and one self-funded team from China - Intelligent Pioneer - dropped out at the last minute, bringing the number of contestants to 16.

DARPA said it had been inspired to organize the challenge after it became clear robots were only capable of playing a very limited role in efforts to contain 2011's Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in Japan.

"What we realized was these robots couldn't do anything other than observe," said Gill Pratt, program manager for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. "What they needed was a robot to go into that reactor building and shut off the valves."

Eight of the top teams that participated in the challenge may receive as much as $1 million in funding, ahead of further trials next year, with a $2 million prize.