Innovating to Save Lives
Overview
Advancing Battlefield Medicine
A challenge event is a prize-funded competition sponsored by the agency to accelerate the development of groundbreaking technologies by having teams compete to solve complex technical problems.
There are three separate competitions - Systems, Data, and Virtual.
Each event focuses on a specific aspect of using advanced technology to improve medical triage, from real-world robotic assessment to predicting a patient's needs using data. These challenges are designed to bridge the gap between fundamental research and practical applications for military and national security needs.
Challenge Event 1
The first challenge event, held in September 2024 at Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia, tested new technologies for medical triage during mass-casualty incidents. Teams used stand-off sensors on UAVs and UGVs to autonomously locate and assess casualties under realistic field conditions.
The event featured three parallel competitions — Systems, Data, and Virtual. The Systems competition focused on autonomous casualty detection in physical courses. The Virtual and Data competitions centered on simulated scenarios and real trauma-center datasets, tasking teams with developing algorithms to predict life-saving interventions based on accuracy and speed.
Teams completed qualifications before each challenge event.
Key lessons emerged
- Frequent testing and error correction are essential for progress
- Clear scoring criteria help teams align their approaches with real-world needs
- Robust solutions must overcome hardware challenges like overheating and bandwidth limits
Teams pursued diverse strategies, from refining data pipelines to creating specialized analysis tools, yielding insights that will drive stronger, more adaptable triage technologies.
Challenge Event 2
In September 2025, the challenges deepen. Challenged teams to operate in degraded and obstructed environments that more closely reflect real-world disaster and battlefield conditions, including smoke, low light, and physical obstructions.
Systems teams will face degraded sensing, dynamic obstacles, darkness, and rugged terrain in on-site courses, while Data teams will deploy more complex, noisy datasets to pinpoint critical physiological signatures.
Challenge Event 3
In the final year of the DARPA Triage Challenge, teams will face the most complex environment yet. Additional details forthcoming.
Prizes
To win a prize, teams must pass casualty localization and triage accuracy thresholds.
| Challenge Event 1 Fall 2024 | |||
| Systems* | Data* | Virtual* | |
| 1st | $120,000 | $120,000 | $60,000 |
| 2nd | $60,000 | $60,000 | $30,000 |
| 3rd | $20,000 | $20,000 | $10,000 |
| Challenge Event 2 Fall 2025 | ||
| Systems* | Data* | |
| 1st | $300,000 | $300,000 |
| 2nd | $150,000 | $150,000 |
| 3rd | $50,000 | $50,000 |
| Challenge Event 3 Fall 2026 | ||
| Systems** | Data** | |
| 1st | $1,500,000 | $900,000 |
| 2nd | $750,000 | $450,000 |
| 3rd | $250,000 | $150,000 |
*Self-funded
**DARPA-funded, self-funded
By deploying remote technologies, we can better ensure that we get the right patients to the right level of care in the right time. I look forward to learning if “triage signatures” can deliver on their promise.
– Dr. Jeremy Brown, Director of the Office of Emergency Care Research, NINDS/NIH
