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=$(“#rssFeed”).find(“tr”),i=t.length,n=’
- ‘,a;for(a=1;a‘+t.eq(a).find(“td:first-of-type”).text()+”“;n+=”
“,$(“#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