Bill > S0016

This Resolution commends the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) team for their exceptional performance in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a competition initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a U.S. Department of Defense agency focused on developing new technologies. The challenge was designed to foster the creation of robots capable of assisting in disaster response, inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. IHMC, a Pensacola-based organization, excelled throughout the competition, first by winning the Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC) in June 2013, which tested software teams' ability to control a simulated robot. This victory earned them an Atlas robot and a place in the subsequent DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials in December 2013, where they secured second place overall and first in the Atlas robot category. The competition culminated in the DRC Finals in June 2015, where IHMC's robot, "Running Man," achieved second place overall and again topped the Atlas robot competition, earning a $1 million prize and bringing honor to Florida by showcasing the potential of robotics in disaster mitigation.