When it comes to fierce battle competitions between humanoid robots, Japan does more than create cartoons about it. Shaft Inc. represented Japan among sixteen different teams from around the world to compete in the illustrious DARPA Robotics Challenge, held December 20-21.

The Homestead Miami Speedway in Florida was the location where the DARPA Robotics Challenge went underway. The track was turned into a disaster area, which served for the DRC’s goal to develop robots that can perform tasks in dangerous environments.

The Robotics Challenge has the robots undergo a series of events that simulate disaster scenarios. The robots would need to be able to address the event’s three objectives and earns three points for each successful attempt. The robot can earn its team an additional point if no humans intervened on its behalf during the scenario.

The total number of points a team can possibly earn is 32. The Shaft Inc. robot came out in the far lead with a whopping 27 points, with the second place by IHMC Robotics (developed by Boston Dynamics) coming in at 20 points and Carnegie Mellon University’s CMU Highly Intelligent Mobile Platform CHIMP robot placing third with 18 points. The Shaft robot earned “best in task” in four tasks: ladder, hose, terrain and debris.

The top eight-scoring teams received $1 million each to enhance their robots for the final rounds, which will be held in December of next idea. They will compete for a $2 million dollar grand prize.  “I think you’re going to see teams work on improving their speed,” said Tony Stentz, leader of the third-place team Tartan Rescue. “They’re going to work on making these robots even more autonomous and less reliant on their operators.”

The Shaft robot had longer and more articular type arms and not the typical humanoid torso that the other robots had. This new design made the robot appear more clumsy and awkward, however; it enabled the robot to perform its tasks easily.

Five of the eight tasks dealt with moving from point A to point B: climbing a ladder, opening doors, traversing across rough terrain, removing debris, and driving a car through a small obstacle course. The other three were hands-on tasks: turning valves, cutting out a triangle in drywall with a drill.

Google had bought Shaft Inc. as well as Boston Dynamics just prior to the DARPA Robotics Challenge.  This new buy looks good for the companies’ stance on next year’s final competition.