The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) was a US Defense Department competition, run from 2012 to 2015, to build human-supervised robots that could work in a disaster zone such as the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant. At the finals in Pomona, California on June 5–6, 2015, Team KAIST’s DRC-HUBO from South Korea won the $2 million top prize, finishing all eight tasks in 44 minutes 28 seconds. IHMC’s Running Man (an Atlas) took $1 million and Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Rescue team $500,000 with CHIMP (Scientific American).
What DRC robots had to do
DARPA’s program page set the goal as robots able to carry out complex tasks in dangerous, degraded, human-engineered environments under human supervision. The finals course, in order, had eight tasks:
- Drive a utility vehicle
- Get out of the vehicle
- Open a door and go through
- Turn a valve
- Cut a hole in a wall with a drill
- A surprise task (a lever or a plug, revealed on the day)
- Cross a rubble field or debris
- Climb stairs
Each team had 60 minutes, no safety tethers, and a deliberately degraded radio link, so the robot had to act alone for stretches. A human reset cost at least 10 minutes on a running clock. Teams were ranked by tasks completed, then time, on their better of two runs (IEEE Spectrum).
DARPA Robotics Challenge timeline and results
| Stage | Date and place | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Announcement | April 2012 | $2 million top prize; program launched October 2012 |
| Virtual Robotics Challenge | June 17–21, 2013 (simulation) | 26 teams; IHMC first. Top teams received Boston Dynamics Atlas robots |
| DRC Trials | December 20–21, 2013, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Florida | 16 teams; SCHAFT first with 27 of 32 points, IHMC second (20), Tartan Rescue third (18) (DARPA) |
| DRC Finals | June 5–6, 2015, Fairplex, Pomona, California | 25 finalist teams; KAIST first, IHMC second, Tartan Rescue third |
| Place | Team | Robot | Tasks | Time | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | KAIST (South Korea) | DRC-HUBO | 8 | 44:28 | $2,000,000 |
| 2 | IHMC Robotics (Florida) | Running Man (Atlas) | 8 | 50:26 | $1,000,000 |
| 3 | Tartan Rescue (Carnegie Mellon) | CHIMP | 8 | 55:15 | $500,000 |
SCHAFT, the Trials winner, had been bought by Google and withdrew before the finals. DRC-HUBO won partly on design: it could kneel and roll on wheels at its knees, which let it move quickly on flat ground and avoid falls, while many legged entries fell on the course.
What happened after the DRC
- Atlas: Boston Dynamics retired the hydraulic Atlas used by DRC teams in April 2024 and replaced it with an electric design. The production electric Atlas was unveiled at CES on January 5, 2026; our Atlas 2026 guide covers its specs and who gets the first units.
- KAIST and HUBO: the HUBO lab’s researchers founded Rainbow Robotics in 2011. Samsung Electronics became its largest shareholder with a 35% stake on December 31, 2024 (Samsung).
- IHMC: continued humanoid work with commercial partner Boardwalk Robotics on the Nadia humanoid (IEEE Spectrum).
- DARPA Subterranean Challenge: the next DARPA robot contest ended in September 2021 in the Louisville Mega Cavern; team CERBERUS won the $2 million systems prize (DARPA).
- DARPA Triage Challenge: robots and drones that assess casualties after mass-casualty events. The final event runs November 5–13, 2026 at Disaster City in College Station, Texas (DARPA).
The 2015 finals were a 60-minute, eight-task course with frequent resets. Today’s humanoids are judged on factory shifts rather than eight-task courses; our humanoid robot companies list shows which ones are working at customer sites. For an earlier humanoid that took a different road, see what happened to Honda ASIMO.
DARPA, Scientific American and IEEE Spectrum records checked October 24, 2026.