A team from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) will compete in the systems track of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean Challenge.

A multi-year robotics competition with a $2 million prize, the Subterranean Challenge will task robots to autonomously search tunnels, caves and underground structures.

The Carnegie Mellon team, which includes a member from Oregon State University, is one of just six teams that will receive up to $4.5 million from DARPA to develop the robotic platforms, sensors and software needed to accomplish these “unprecedented underground missions.”

During the challenge, the robots will be responsible for “rapidly mapping, exploring and exploiting complex underground environments” in spaces so small that humans can only crawl through them, to areas big enough to fit an all-terrain vehicle.

The goal of the challenge is to provide warfighters and first responders with the capabilities they need to accomplish various missions in caves, tunnels or urban underground facilities, such as subway stations.

“Successfully completing these missions will require multiple robots, including both drones and ground vehicles,” says Sebastian Scherer, a senior systems scientist in CMU’s Robotics Institute.

“Our team has a wealth of experience in operating robots in mines, enclosed spaces and the wild, and in coordinating the activity of multiple robots.”

The team will be led by Scherer and Matt Travers, a systems scientist in the Robotics Institute. According to Travers, the CMU team will use its expertise in modularity, as it develops robots that can be quickly built and reconfigured to adapt to widely varied environments.

“We can’t be sure that a four-wheeled platform will always be the right robot for every job, so we need to be ready to add wheels or substitute tracks or even legs,” Travers says.

“In some environments, small robots might be our only option, while others may demand larger, more robust robots.”

For Scherer, communications will be a major challenge underground. Additionally, it is very important to get the robots to work together to make sure a space is comprehensively mapped.

For his expertise in multirobot systems, Geoff Hollinger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Oregon State and a CMU robotics alumnus, has been brought to the team.

“Creating robots that can work in subterranean environments will expand the potential application of robots both underground, such as in mines, and inside structures, such as buildings, ships and aircraft,” Scherer says.

“The constraints robots encounter in these confined spaces are enormous, so we have our work cut out for us.”

Starting next fall, DARPA will conduct a series of challenges, including one each in man-made tunnels, natural caves and underground structures. All three types of subterranean environments will be combined during a final event in the fall of 2021.

According to CMU, the DARPA competition takes place on two tracks: the systems track and a virtual track. During the systems track, teams such as CMU develop and demonstrate physical systems for live competitions. During the virtual track, teams develop software and algorithms to compete in simulated environments.

DARPA will award the winner of the systems track $2 million, and $750,000 will be awarded to the winner of the virtual track.