Competitions
Systems
Brings together teams to develop autonomous systems that can use stand-off sensors to detect signs of life-threatening injuries and help medics quickly identify which casualties need urgent attention. | Learn more
Data
Focuses on developing algorithms that can analyze complex, real-world physiological data to detect early signs of life-threatening injuries during secondary triage. | Learn more
Virtual
Completed 2024: Challenges teams to use advanced simulation, sensing, and AI tools to triage virtual casualties in mass-casualty scenarios that are difficult to replicate in the real world. | Learn more
Source: DARPA | Paul Flacks
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.
Finals
In the final year of the challenge, teams will face the most complex environments yet.
Systems teams will run the gauntlet of component testing gates that challenge every aspect of their triage capabilities. Teams passing all gates while operating autonomously will qualify to compete for the Grand Prize of $1,500,000 at the final gate.
The last course will simulate a realistic use case of DTC technology where autonomous systems work along medics to maximize the number of lives saved.
The Data teams will operationalize their algorithms to enable prediction of life-saving procedures needed hours later using only small segments of clinical data. Teams will develop adaptable algorithms to adjust to mass casualty scenarios with different resource constraints. In this final year, one team will win the grand prize of $1,000,000.
Finals
Timeline
| Workshops | |
| Systems | March 14-19 |
| Data * | March 27 |
| Qualifications | |
| Team qualifications | June 28 |
| Systems | July 28 - Aug. 30 |
| Data | June 28 - July 30 |
| Competitions | |
| Systems | Nov. 5 - 13 |
| Data * | Sept. 30 |
| Awards | |
| Ceremony | Nov. 13 |
Prizes
To win a prize, teams passed casualty localization and triage accuracy thresholds.
| Systems | Data | |
| Grand | $1,500,000** | $1,000,000** |
| 1st | $300,000** | |
| 2nd | $150,000* | |
| 1st each gate | $12,500** |
**All teams
Workshop
College Station, Texas | March 2026
In September 2025, the challenges deepened. Challenged teams operated in degraded and obstructed environments that more closely reflected real-world disaster and battlefield conditions, including smoke, low light, and physical obstructions.
Systems teams faced degraded sensing, dynamic obstacles, darkness, and rugged terrain in on-site courses, while Data teams deployed more complex, noisy datasets to pinpoint critical physiological signatures.
Prizes
To win a prize, teams passed casualty localization and triage accuracy thresholds.
| Systems* | Data* | |
| Grand | $300,000 | $300,000 |
| 1st | $150,000 | $150,000 |
| 2nd | $50,000 | $50,000 |
*Self-funded teams only
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.
Prizes
To win a prize, teams passed casualty localization and triage accuracy thresholds.
| Systems* | Data* | Virtual* | |
| 1st | $120,000 | $120,000 | $120,000 |
| 2nd | $60,000 | $60,000 | $60,000 |
| 3rd | $20,000 | $20,000 | $20,000 |
*All teams
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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
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Voices from DARPA
Revolutionizing triage (DARPA Triage Challenge) | Ep 81
Overview
