A $10 MILLION competition aims to get people to control a robot and carry out tasks from 100 kilometres away. Not just that, but the controllers should be able to feel, hear and touch the robot鈥檚 surroundings too.
The XPrize non-profit organisation launched the ANA XPrize Avatar Challenge on Monday at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Teams must submit their plans to a panel of expert judges by the end of January 2019.
In April 2020 and April 2021, teams will then have to show what their avatars can do, and a $1 million purse will be available for the best performer each year. Then, in October 2021, a bumper $8 million will be up for grabs, with teams tested over a five-day finale.
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Eventually, XPrize hopes that the technology will enable people to deploy immediate emergency response in natural disaster scenarios. 鈥淭he idea is that if there was another nuclear disaster like in Fukushima, we could send avatars instead of people,鈥� says Jyotika Virmani of XPrize.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淚nhabit a robot from a distance鈥�
