The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is holding a competition where teams use robots to navigate and search dark, dangerous, and unpredictable underground tunnels.
The Virtual Tunnel Circuit competition features nine teams vying for prizes totaling $500,000. The competition seeks to better equip warfighters and first responders to explore human-made tunnel systems, urban underground, and natural cave networks while decreasing risk to human lives.
The nine organizations that will compete have already been selected. They come from all over the world, including Australia, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and the United States.
Each team assembles a roster of robots and sensors by selecting from the available configurations. Next, each team writes software and algorithms for their set of robots to compete in the simulated environments. The competitors will explore the tunnel environment and attempt to identify artifacts within a five-meter radius accuracy during a 60-minute timed run. A correct report is worth one point. Each course contains 20 artifacts, which means each team has the potential for a maximum score of 20 points.
The event will take place in August with the winners and final results announced on August 22. The winning teams will receive $250,000 while second and third will each receive $150,000 and $100,000, respectively.