A look at DARPA’s subterranean, autonomous systems — Defens…

Unmanned Systems

A look at DARPA’s subterranean, autonomous systems

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Subterranean or SubT Challenge asked participants to use autonomous systems to quickly map, navigate and search underground environments such as human-made tunnel systems, underground mass transit and municipal infrastructure and naturally occurring cave networks.

Timothy Chung, the SubT Challenge program manager, offers a walking tour of the Colorado School of Mines’ Edgar Experimental Mine where the SubT Integration Exercise, known as STIX, took place in April. Nine teams hailing from four continents tested their autonomous air and ground systems for navigating the dark, dangerous, dirty and unpredictable underground domain. Teams scored points by successfully locating and identifying specific artifacts such as backpacks, cellphones, fire extinguishers and even mannequins equipped with thermal warmers.  

A version of this article first appeared on GCN, a sibling site of Defense Systems.

About the Author



Connect with the GCN staff on Twitter @GCNtech.

‘;$(“#sharePage”).prepend(t),$(“#level0 #blogPost .names + div”).append(t),$(“.ondemand:empty”).remove()},runGooglePlus:function(){var e=document.createElement(“script”);e.type=”text/javascript”,e.async=!0,e.src=”https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js”,$(“head”).append(e)},runTwitter:function(){if(!$(“#twitter-wjs”).length){var e=document.createElement(“script”);e.src=”http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js”,e.id=”twitter-wjs”,$(“head”).append(e)}}},rssfeed={init:function(){$(“#rssFeed”).length&&this.createRSSLinks()},createRSSLinks:function(){var e=$(“#rssFeed”).find(“a”),t=$(“#rssFeed”).find(“tr”),i=t.length,n=’

“,$(“#rssFeed”).html(n).show()}};function sticky_wallpaper(){var e;108< $(window).scrollTop()?$("#siteskin_container").addClass("stick-fixed"):$("#siteskin_container").removeClass("stick-fixed")}function checkForPrestitial(){$('div[id*="prestitial"]').is(":visible")||$('div[id*="prestitial"]').hide()}function iframeBusterPrestitial(){if($('div[id*="prestitial"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('div[id*="prestitial"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-prestitial");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-prestitial"),t=(e=e[0]).contentDocument||e.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="prestitial"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="prestitial"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function closePrest(){var e=document.getElementById("mainPrestWrapper");"none"===e.style.display?e.style.display="block":e.style.display="none"}$(function(){$(".no-js").removeClass("no-js").addClass("js"),jq_scrubAds2(),social.init(),rssfeed.init()}),$(function(){0==$(".formContent").length&&($("#level0 #webcast p, #level0 #whitepaper p, #level0 #webcast ul, #level0 #whitepaper ul, #level0 #webcast .sponsor, #level0 #whitepaper .sponsor, #level0 #webcast h4, #level0 #whitepaper h4").css("width","auto"),$("#level0 #whitepaper, #level0 #webcast").css("height","auto"),$("#level0 #webcast a img").show()),$(".formContent .validationErrors").length&&($("#level0 #whitepaper, #level0 #webcast").css("height","2000px"),$(window).resize(function(){var e;$(window).width()<840?$("#level0 #whitepaper, #level0 #webcast").css("height","auto"):$("#level0 #whitepaper, #level0 #webcast").css("height","2000px")}))}),$(document).ready(function(){0===$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(1)").height()&&$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(1)").css("display","none"),0===$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(2)").height()&&$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(2)").css("display","none"),0===$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(3)").height()&&$(".xContent .ad:nth-child(3)").css("display","none"),0===$.trim($("#sponsorTextLink ul").children().text()).length&&$("#sponsorTextLink").css("display","none")}),$(function(){$(window).scroll(sticky_wallpaper),sticky_wallpaper()}),$(document).ready(function(){$("body").append("")}),$(function(){$('[id*="prestitial"]').on("click",function(){$('[id*="prestitial"]').hide()})});var presitialTime=2e4,hidePrestitial;function prestitial(){769<=$(window).width()&&($(".adClose #adclose").click(function(){closePrestitial()}),hidePrestitial=setTimeout("closePrestitial()",presitialTime))}function closePrestitial(){$('div[id*="prestitial"]').hide(),clearTimeout(hidePrestitial)}function iframeBusterAdhesionBanner(){if($('div[id*="boot_desktop"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('.footer div[id*="boot_desktop"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-adhesionBanner");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-adhesionBanner");iframe=e[0];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="boot_desktop"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="boot_desktop"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function iframeBusterAdhesionBannerMobile(){if($('div[id*="boot_mobile"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('.footer div[id*="boot_mobile"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-adhesionBannerMobile");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-adhesionBannerMobile");iframe=e[0];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="boot_mobile"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="boot_mobile"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function iframeBusterDogear(){if($('div[id*="dog_t1"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('.ad div[id*="dog_t1"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-dogear");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-dogear");iframe=e[0];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="dog_t1"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="dog_t1"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function iframeBusterNativeHome(){if($('div[id*="promo1"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('.ad div[id*="promo1"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-native-home");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-native-home");iframe=e[0];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="promo1"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="promo1"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function iframeBusterNativeArticle(){if($('div[id*="underarticlenative1"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")){$('.ad div[id*="underarticlenative1"] div iframe').attr("class","iframe-buster-native-article");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-native-article");iframe=e[0];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$('div[id*="underarticlenative1"]').parent().css("display","none"),$('div[id*="underarticlenative1"]').append(t.body.innerHTML)}}function iframeBusterSponsorTextLinks(){var i=null,n=!1,a=0;$("#sponsorTextLink ul li .ad div[id*='-text-']").each(function(){if(i=$(this).attr("id"),$(this).hasClass("ad-loaded")){n=!0,$("#"+i).find("iframe").attr("class","iframe-buster-sponsor-text-links");var e=document.getElementsByClassName("iframe-buster-sponsor-text-links");iframe=e[a];var t=iframe.contentDocument||iframe.contentWindow.document;0==t.body.innerHTML.length&&$(this).parent().css("display","none"),$(this).parent().append(t.body.innerHTML)}a++}),n||$("#sponsorTextLink").hide()}function osdlfm(){var e=void 0}$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){checkForPrestitial(),prestitial(),iframeBusterPrestitial()},0)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterDogear()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterAdhesionBannerMobile()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterAdhesionBanner()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterNativeHome()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterNativeArticle()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){iframeBusterSponsorTextLinks()},500)}),$(window).bind("load",function(){setTimeout(function(){$(".native1 .ad").find('div[id*="promo1"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")&&$(".native1").parent("li").addClass("show-native"),$(".native2 .ad").find('div[id*="promo2"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")&&$(".native2").parent("li").addClass("show-native"),$(".native3 .ad").find('div[id*="underarticlenative1"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")&&$(".native3").parent("li").addClass("show-native"),$(".native4 .ad").find('div[id*="underarticlenative2"]').hasClass("ad-loaded")&&$(".native4").parent("li").addClass("show-native")},700)});

https://defensesystems.com/articles/2019/06/11/darpa-subt-tunnel-tour.aspx

DroneLife.com

Previous Uber and McDonald’s team up to make fast food even faster – …
Next Inventors design creepy-looking drone with HANDS they say wi…

Check Also

Here are the two companies creating drone wingmen for the US…

The U.S. Air Force on Wednesday announced it selected Anduril and General Atomics to keep …

Hindu Nationalists Are Taking Notes—and Tech Support—From th…

Momtaj Begum was scared, but there was no time. She immediately started packing everything her …