The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has qualified 14 additional teams, including competitors from Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, China and South Korea, to join teams from Carnegie Mellon University and elsewhere in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Finals, June 5-6 in Pomona, Calif.

Tartan Rescue, a team fielded by CMU’s National Robotics Engineering Center, and Team WPI-CMU, a team based at Worcester Polytechnic Institute that includes CMU Robotics Professor Chris Atkeson, were among 11 teams that previously qualified for the DRC Finals based on their performance at the DRC Trials in December 2013.

The teams will be competing for one of three cash prizes, totaling $3.5 million, based on how their robots perform in response to a simulated natural or man-made disaster. Robots will have one hour to perform a series of tasks, such as driving a vehicle, climbing stairs and using power tools. DARPA also will include a “surprise” task.

Unlike the earlier Trials, all of the robots will operate only on battery power, will communicate wirelessly with their operators and will operate without a safety harness, placing them in danger of falls.