Three Years, Three Events
The DARPA Triage Challenge is a three-year effort that began in 2022, with separate events for teams in three categories: Systems, Data, and Virtual.
Each event featured multiple competitions that focused on a specific application of advanced technology to improve medical triage. Competition scenarios increased in complexity each year.
Competition Objectives
- Systems – Detect and identify physiological signatures of injury derived from data captured by stand-off sensors onboard autonomous systems.
- Data – Using real-world datasets from trauma centers, predict the need for life-saving interventions.
- Virtual – Working within a simulated environment and patient avatars, use data from real-world trauma centers to evaluate casualties. (This competition concluded with Event 1.)
Teams must successfully find, locate, and assess injuries. | 2:25
The first DARPA Triage Challenge event took place in September 2024 at Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia. After demonstrating qualifications and participating in preparatory workshops, qualifying teams competed across three parallel competitions:
Systems: Focused on autonomous detection of casualties, with three courses representing military and civilian mass casualty scenarios. Teams used stand-off sensors on UAVs and UGVs to locate and assess casualties under realistic field conditions.
Data: Tasked teams with developing algorithms to predict which casualties would need life-saving interventions.
Virtual: Concluded with Event 1 and centered on simulated scenarios with obstacles and injuries that cannot be reproduced in a physical testing environment. Teams navigated the virtual environment and assessed the health status of avatars.
The diverse strategies demonstrated during Event 1 – from refining data pipelines to creating specialized analysis tools – yielded insights that will drive stronger, more adaptable triage technologies.
Results
Only self-funded teams who scored within the top five were eligible for prize money in Event 1.
Read the announcement of winners
Systems
| Team | R1 | R2 | R3 | Score |
| DART | 79 | 61 | 106 | 92.5 |
| Coordinated Robotics* | 77 | 52 | 91 | 84.0 |
| RoboScout | 71 | 37 | 75 | 73.0 |
| Chiron | 71 | 53 | 28 | 62.0 |
| UAS-DTU* | 13 | 54 | 27 | 40.5 |
| Engineering Dynamics* | 0 | 62 | 0 | 31.0 |
| PRONTO | 0 | 56 | 0 | 30.5 |
| AIR TAGS | 29 | 0 | 0 | 14.5 |
| POINTER | 0 | 19 | 0 | 9.5 |
| RAPID | 0 | 0 | 18 | 9.0 |
| TTT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 |
*Self-funded team
Data
| Team | R1 | R2 | Score |
| Coordinated Robotics* | 434 | 191 | 625 |
| MSAI* | 364 | 191 | 555 |
| CAMA* | 368 | 164 | 532 |
| LENS | 129 | 181 | 310 |
| AI TEMPO | 91 | 177 | 268 |
| CRITIC | 21 | 168 | 189 |
| TrueFit.AI* | 37 | 142 | 179 |
| Robotika* | 27 | 116 | 143 |
| ALICE | 18 | 91 | 109 |
| AUSTERE | 49 | 12 | 61 |
| MGB-Harvard* | 13 | 31 | 44 |
| CNA* | 8 | 27 | 35 |
*Self-funded team
Virtual
| Team | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Score |
| Coordinated Robotics | 374 | 359 | 377 | 370 | 363 | 372 | 369.167 |
| Robotika | 360 | 328 | 332 | 354 | 339 | 359 | 345.333 |
| Engineering Dynamics | 337 | 338 | 340 | 329 | 316 | 345 | 334.167 |
| Second Sight | 274 | 301 | 311 | 273 | 302 | 328 | 298.167 |
| Flying Fitches | 290 | 286 | 287 | 269 | 265 | 288 | 280.833 |
| UAS-DTU | 91 | 110 | 103 | 117 | 89 | 109 | 103.167 |
| TTT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.000 |
In September 2025, teams returned to Guardian Centers in Perry, Georgia, to face more difficult and complex competition scenarios. Event 2 required teams to collaborate with human medics to identify casualties in real time:
- Systems: Presented teams with degraded sensing, dynamic obstacles, darkness, and rugged terrain in on-site courses.
- Data: Required teams to parse more complex, noisy datasets to pinpoint critical physiological signatures.
As in the first year, DARPA-funded and self-funded teams competed side by side.
Results
As with Event 1, prize money was available only to self-funded teams in Event 2. Teams had to achieve a minimum benchmark to receive a score for a given scenario (Systems teams) or algorithm run (Data teams).
Read the announcement of winners
Systems
Coordinated Robotics
$300,000
UAS-DTU
$150,000
| Team | C130 | Night | Score |
| DART* | 536 | 192 | 728 |
| RoboScout* | 383 | 247 | 630 |
| Coordinated Robotics | 267 | 279 | 546 |
| PRONTO* | 321 | 162 | 483 |
| UAS-DTU | 109 | 278 | 387 |
| Chiron* | 176 | 181 | 357 |
| AIR TAGS* | 33 | 110 | 143 |
| Robotika | 36 | 0 | 36 |
| TTT | 0 | 0 | 0 |
*DARPA-funded team
No other self-funded teams achieved the minimum benchmark.
Data
Coordinated Robotics
$300,000
| Team | R1 | R2 | R3 | Score |
| MSAI* | 25.87 | 25.99 | 25.53 | 77.39 |
| Coordinated Robotics | 26.40 | 25.05 | 24.40 | 75.86 |
| AI-TEMPO* | 24.24 | 24.50 | 23.86 | 72.60 |
| CRITIC* | 22.56 | 21.39 | 22.26 | 66.22 |
| LENS* | 18.53 | 19.76 | 21.88 | 60.17 |
| AID3D | 16.67 | 16.67 | 16.67 | 50.00 |
| Deep Breathe | 16.67 | 16.67 | 16.67 | 50.00 |
| CAMA | 16.93 | 16.73 | 15.86 | 49.53 |
| AUSTERE | 9.45 | 15.17 | 9.59 | 34.21 |
*DARPA-funded team
Run (R): Calculated as the sum of Mean Squared Correct (𝑀𝑆𝐶𝑟) for each case.
R1: Expanded EHR
R2: Basic EHR
R3: Vitals only
EHR: Electronic Health Records
*DARPA-funded team
No other self-funded teams achieved the minimum benchmark.
Event 3
The Challenge culminates with Event 3 – the Finals – in Disaster City, Texas (near College Station).
Timeline
Data and systems teams compete in separate finals events in 2026.
| Date | |
| Systems competition | Nov. 5-13 |
| Awards ceremony | Nov. 13 |
| “ |
In a mass casualty event, every minute makes a difference — but today’s triage methods are time consuming and fragile. – Col. Jeremy C. Pamplin M.D., U.S. Army (Ret.), program manager, DARPA Triage Challenge
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Voices from DARPA
Revolutionizing triage (DARPA Triage Challenge) | Ep 81
