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They’re Training Robots to Sneak Underground Now

There is absolutely no doubt that at some point in our future sentient robots will become a permanent part of our lives. We already see the early stages of what will eventually become a human-made life form, and for some that’s reassuring, while for others pretty damn frightening.
Cerberus project for DARPA's Subterranean Challenge 1 photo
Photo: CERBERUS SubT
More or less intelligent drones are currently flying in our skies, other types of robots are learning to work as teams, and there are organizations out there who are also trying to make them capable of operating underground. One of the ones doing this is, of course, DARPA.

Deciding that “complex underground settings present significant challenges for military and civilian first responders,” the agency created two years ago a competition seeking to find ways and robots that could “rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments during time-sensitive combat operations or disaster response scenarios.”

To achieve its task, the so-called SubT Challenge (Subterranean Challenge) was created by DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO). Entries were allowed from all those interested in taking part, provided they came up with robotic solutions for handling tunnel, urban, and cave circuits.

There were several preliminary events held so far by DARPA, and last week the eight teams that made it into what can be considered the finals were announced (full list of machines can be found at this link). In September 2021, the teams will meet at the Louisville Mega Cavern, a former limestone mine in Kentucky and one of the largest cavern in the U.S, to show their might.

There, robots will have to prove their worth by quickly moving through the cavern in search of planted backpacks, cell phones, and even trapped survivors. The robot and team to do it the fastest will receive a $2 million prize, while the runner-up will get $1 million. Only $500k are on the table for the ones coming in third.

What does the agency hope to get out of this? Well, robots that can operate underground, finding stuff, of course. The previous preliminary events have already shown, says DARPA, that multimodal sensing developed through collaboration of robots has increased the chance of identifying targets underground, so who’s to say what will eventually come of this.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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