Science-fiction movies often show robots freely running across the screen, either wreaking havoc or saving the world.

Many roboticists competing in the finals of the DARPA Robotics Challenge earlier this month said they are backing away from autonomy in order to make their robots work faster and more efficiently.

For them, less autonomy for the robot and more human control means a better shot at winning the global, multi-year competition.

An autonomous robot is able to complete tasks or behaviors without human intervention. The robots competing in the DARPA challenge were semi-autonomous, meaning they performed some tasks on their own but needed human guidance for others.

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