Not for the first or last time, we here at Bitter Empire have to admit that we were wrong. Despite our constant predictions, the winner of the DARPA Robotics Challenge was a humanoid robot. Specifically, Hubo the South Korean team’s ‘bot, was awarded the $2 million win!
Coming in a close second, another humanoid robot! Team IHMC’s Running Man, from Pensacola, Florida took the second place prize.
We should have known that using the Boston Dynamics ‘bot Atlas as a base would give this robot a leg up.
CHIMP was the only non-humanoid robot to place, and the only ‘bot in the winner’s circle that we profiled.
But, for the lay audience, do we really care who won or who lost? What do you really want out of a robot competition? A compilation video of robots falling over?
IEEE – have we told you we love you lately?
Thousands of people cheering when a robot walks up the stairs? Like the robot was encouraged by the attention? We’ve got that, too.
Congratulations Hubo!
Time lapse video that makes it look like RoboSimian was riding a roller coaster?
Oh yes!
Hilarious anthropomorphizing of robots?
Robot thoughts: “YOU HUMANS AND YOUR LITTERING” #DARPADRC pic.twitter.com/tDOkAylKvr
— Keri Bean (@PlanetaryKeri) June 6, 2015
The real winners of the Darpa Robotics Challenge? Anyone who loves robots!
And hopefully, humanity as a whole when ‘bots like these rescue our butts the next time we create an epic disaster zone.