Rodney Brooks of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology nudged the whole field forward in early 1990s when he showed how robots could make faster decisions by responding to sensory data from their immediate environment rather than relying on complex sets of rules.

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"Due to the limitations on the current robotic technologies, robots cannot completely supplant human teachers in the educational field, " said Choi.

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When the final round of the Urban Challenge begins Saturday morning, that field will have been whittled down to just 20 or so robots by the event's sponsor, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

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For the last portion of the challenge, the robots will be balanced on the bridges in the middle of the field in order to score additional points.

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