元器件交易网讯  3月25日消息，据外媒报道，谷歌并无兴趣从美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）获得27亿美元的军事援助资金，谷歌的目标在于更有利可图的消费市场。而DARPA也并不想给予谷歌资金，DARPA想利用这笔资金创建公司并且购买稀缺资源。

　　谷歌去年购买了一家制造军事机器人的公司（Boston Dynamics），该公司以制造狗形机器人而出名。自去年年底，谷歌X实验室又购买了一批制做机器人零件的公司其中包括波士顿动力和Schaft公司，二者都以制做机器人而出名。美国国防高级研究计划局（DARPA）不再在机器人领域一家独大。

　　谷歌和DARPA有很多共同点-他们都试图预测未来，并在新兴技术押下重注。谷歌甚至有时候抢取DARPA的员工。

　　DARPA举办的机器人挑战赛中比赛的任务包括爬梯子等运动项目，谷歌对DARPA称将使用自有资金支持Schaft参加决赛，而Schaft的团队也已经同意。（元器件交易网   白玉涛译）

　　以下为外文：

　　Once upon a time, if you wanted money to build humanoid robots, you basically had to get it from the military — specifically, the high-risk, high-reward technology lab known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA.

　　GOOGLE AND DARPA ARE ENTANGLED IN A SHOTGUN MARRIAGE

　　That changed late last year when Google’s own high-risk, high-reward technology lab — Google X — bought a string of companies that make robot legs, arms, eyes, wheels, and brains, with the apparent goal of building something like an android. It’s a win for roboticists, who now have a nonmilitary patron with deep pockets. But two of Google’s new rock star robotics companies, Boston Dynamics and Schaft, still have obligations to DARPA — meaning Google and DARPA are entangled in a shotgun marriage, forced to share parental duties for at least a year.

　　Google and DARPA have a lot in common — they both try to anticipate the future and make big bets on emerging technologies. Google even has a history of snapping up DARPA-funded technology — the self-driving car came from a DARPA-sponsored competition — and poaching its employees.

　　That doesn’t mean the two innovation houses want to work together, however. Google isn’t interested in taking money from DARPA because its ambitions are in the more lucrative consumer market, and any association with DARPA leads to headlines like, "What the heck will Google do with these scary military robots?" DARPA doesn’t want to give Google money because it wants to use its $2.7 billion budget to fund startups with scarce resources, not Goliath tech companies, and its investments are supposed to seed technology that can one day be purchased by the Pentagon for national defense, which Google is unlikely to play along with.

　　The tension came to a head over the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC), a $2 million competition for robot rescue workers that requires the machines to perform athletic feats like opening a door and going up and down a ladder. Google never signed up for the DRC, but it’s now intimately involved. Five of the eight teams that qualified through the DRC Trials in December are using Atlas, a humanoid made by Boston Dynamics. Boston Dynamics has a $10.8 million contract to provide Atlas robots and tech support for the DRC.

　　GOOGLE NEVER SIGNED UP FOR THE DARPA ROBOTICS CHALLENGE, BUT IT’S NOW INTIMATELY INVOLVED

　　Google also happens to own the team that is most likely to win the DRC. Schaft, a Japanese robotics startup that was founded explicitly to compete in the competition, got 27 out of 32 possible points at the qualifying round in December, beating the runner-up by seven. Schaft received $2.6 million from DARPA to compete.

　　It now looks like Google and DARPA are trying to extricate themselves from each other a little early, however. DARPA is considering adding more teams to a track in the competition where teams build their own robot without DARPA funding, and any newcomers will use a different platform such as NASA Johnson Space Center’s Valkyrie robot instead of Atlas, in order to prevent further entanglement with Boston Dynamics. Google will also move Schaft to the unfunded track and forfeit future DARPA money, which will be reallocated to non-Google-owned teams.

　　It’s also looking like the finals will be postponed to give the teams more time to get ready. DARPA has not decided on a date yet, but the event will take place some time between December 2014 and June 2015. Whenever that is, it's also likely to be the last day of Google and DARPA’s unhappy union.