New XPrize Offers $10 Million to Develop a Real-Life Avatar

March 17, 2018 – The ANA Avatar XPrize is the latest in competitions announced by the XPrize organization. It joins a number of other prize offerings covering a wide range of fields from empowering children to take control of their own learning, turning carbon dioxide emissions into valuable products, to creating water from thin air. This makes 10 active XPrizes on the go with over $100 million U.S. at stake with each sponsored by a corporation. The ANA in the Avatar prize is All Nippon Airways. Registration to compete opened on March 12th and will remain open until October 31st. Registrants will have four years to develop the technology described on the website.

So what is expected of the winner?

To create a multipurpose avatar robotic presence to be used in a variety of real-world applications. These avatars could take many different forms to suit various scenarios including:

• providing care – the avatar robot would be present to care for anyone regardless of distance.
• disaster relief – the avatar robot would provide life-saving skills to remote areas where it may be too dangerous for a human to go.
• multipurpose utility – the avatar robot would provide critical maintenance repairs where no human with the right skills was available.

States Peter Diamandis, the creator of the XPrize, “The ANA Avatar XPrize can enable creation of an audacious alternative [to humans] that could bypass these limitations allowing us to more rapidly and efficiently distribute skill and hands-on expertise to distant geographic locations where they are needed, bridging the gap between distance, time and cultures.” 

In the guidelines, it states that the winning team will use state-of-the-art technologies to allow a robot to work with an untrained operator completing a series of tasks in a location at least 100 kilometers (62 miles) away. The execution of real-world uses will effectively demonstrate an ability to deliver critical care, emergency response, and other skills needed in health, the environment, food, education, housing, safety, and security.

Registrants will pay a $1,000 fee before October 31, 2018. A three-month qualifying round follows for teams to submit technical documentation and plans. Up to 25 teams will then be given the opportunity to move on to the main competition. These will be announced on April 30, 2019. The competition that follows will last 30 months with two milestones, one in April 2020 and April 2021. The two milestone prizes will be awarded $1 million each.

Three finalists will be chosen from the competition with each team asked to complete three series of realistic and complex activities, each over a 20 minute period. For each activity, the finalists will be rewarded points. The one with the most points will be awarded the grand prize worth $8 million.

Judging will look at a number of criteria:

• ability to perform in less than 10 minutes after being trained.
• low weight of less than 5 kilograms (12 pounds) for equipment worn by the remote avatar operator, with no limitation on the weight of the avatar robot or accessory equipment.
• vision including peripheral, range of motion, resolution, colour spectrum, depth, and tracking.
• sound including the avatar’s voice, ability to locate and selectively figure out who in a room is talking, feedback awareness, and listening range frequency.
• touch including temperature, touch, texture, and weight recognition, strength including the ability to lift and transfer objects, and dexterity.
• operating endurance of at least two hours without recharging.

In the Providing Care scenario, worth 100 points, the avatar will:

• greet a relative in an assisted living facility
• administer morning medication
• push a wheelchair
• discuss available daily activities with staff
• identify a board game and bring it to a patient and set up the game to play
• listen to an announcement about a visiting doctor
• bring the patient to the doctor’s location
• read the patient report aloud and sign it
• bring the patient back to his or her original location
• take a blanket from the wheelchair, fold it, and put it on a shelf

In the Disaster Relief scenario, worth 200 points, the avatar will:

• operate a shovel to load 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of debris into a wheelbarrow
• push the wheelbarrow 10 meters (33 feet) to a loading area
• use the shovel to unload the wheelbarrow
• return to the original location
• listen for a call for help and locate the source
• walk forward to the location
• pick up a coiled rope with a weighted end and then throw the rope towards the location of the sound
• turn the avatar’s head and call for assistance
• hand the unweighted end of the rope to an assistant

In the Multipurpose Utility, worth 300 points, the avatar will:

• locate a set of instructions and read them aloud
• pour a specified amount of liquid from one container to another
• use a scoop to collect a specified amount of powder
• unroll a plan on a table and weigh down the corners
• use a protractor, straightedge, and mechanical pencil and draw on the plan two lines that intersect at 45 degrees
• identify a broken plug-in component on an electrical control panel
• walk 6 meters (20 feet) to a workbench and solder a wire on it
• return to the control panel and replace the broken component