The DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) was held over the weekend, and Team KAIST (the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) won the competition. IEEE Spectrum notes the team had a "perfect run" completing the challenge in 44 minutes, 28 seconds.

The DARPA Robotics Challenge was created in response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident. Several reactors at the Japanese plant were damaged after an earthquake and tsunami hit the region. After the initial damage, repairs were needed to prevent radiation from spreading further, but the already-radioactive environment made the work extremely dangerous for humans. The idea of sending robots in to do the repairs was floated, but no robots capable of navigating the terrain and performing the needed tasks existed.

As such, the DRC asks teams to build a robot capable of performing many tasks inspired by the nuclear cleanup, including driving a vehicle, dismounting and opening a door, cutting a hole through a wall with a standard power tool, and connecting a fire hose to a port and turning on a valve.

While all the robots needed to have legs so they could walk up steps, Team KAIST's robot had an innovative wheeled mode. It had two legs it could walk on, but when it kneeled down, wheels on the knees and feet allowed the robot to drive around in a more stable position. Why deal with the complicated, dangerous task of walking when you don't have to?

And if you don't think walking is dangerous for a robot, we'll leave you with this montage of the DRC field when things don't go quite right—it's lots of robots falling over.