Related papers: Team CERBERUS Wins the DARPA Subterranean Challeng…

Autonomous exploration of subterranean environments constitutes a major frontier for robotic systems as underground settings present key challenges that can render robot autonomy hard to achieve. This has motivated the DARPA Subterranean…

The DARPA Subterranean Challenge was designed for competitors to develop and deploy teams of autonomous robots to explore difficult unknown underground environments. Categorised in to human-made tunnels, underground urban infrastructure and…

Due to the highly complex environment present during the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, all six funded teams relied on legged robots as part of their robotic team. Their unique locomotion skills of being able to step over obstacles require…

We present a field report of CTU-CRAS-NORLAB team from the Subterranean Challenge (SubT) organised by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The contest seeks to advance technologies that would improve the safety and…

While the capabilities of autonomous systems have been steadily improving in recent years, these systems still struggle to rapidly explore previously unknown environments without the aid of GPS-assisted navigation. The DARPA Subterranean…

Subterranean environments with lots of obstacles, including narrow passages, large voids, rock falls and absence of illumination were always challenging for control, navigation, and perception of mobile robots. The limited availability and…

Artificial intelligence has undergone immense growth and maturation in recent years, though autonomous systems have traditionally struggled when fielded in diverse and previously unknown environments. DARPA is seeking to change that with…

Field robotics applications, such as search and rescue, involve robots operating in large, unknown areas. These environments present unique challenges that compound the difficulties faced by a robot operator. The use of multi-robot teams,…

Heterogeneous teams of robots, leveraging a balance between autonomy and human interaction, bring powerful capabilities to the problem of exploring dangerous, unstructured subterranean environments. Here we describe the solution developed…

Robotic exploration of underground environments is a particularly challenging problem due to communication, endurance, and traversability constraints which necessitate high degrees of autonomy and agility. These challenges are further…

Robot autonomy in unknown, GPS-denied, and complex underground environments requires real-time, robust, and accurate onboard pose estimation and mapping for reliable operations. This becomes particularly challenging in perception-degraded…

This paper presents a self-contained system for the robust utilization of aerial robots in the autonomous exploration of cave environments to help human explorers, first responders, and speleologists. The proposed system is generally…

This paper presents an autonomous navigation system for ground robots traversing aggressive unstructured terrain through a cohesive arrangement of mapping, deliberative planning and reactive behaviour modules. All systems are aware of…

This paper presents and discusses algorithms, hardware, and software architecture developed by the TEAM CoSTAR (Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Robots), competing in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Specifically, it presents the…

This paper presents a novel approach for autonomous cooperating UAVs in search and rescue operations in subterranean domains with complex topology. The proposed system was ranked second in the Virtual Track of the DARPA SubT Finals as part…

Although autonomy has gained widespread usage in structured and controlled environments, robotic autonomy in unknown and off-road terrain remains a difficult problem. Extreme, off-road, and unstructured environments such as undeveloped…

Perceiving the surrounding environment is essential for enabling autonomous or assisted driving functionalities. Common tasks in this domain include detecting road users, as well as determining lane boundaries and classifying driving…

Implementing a wireless mesh network in a real-life scenario requires a significant systems engineering effort to turn a network concept into a complete system. This paper presents an evaluation of a fielded system within the DARPA…

We propose a framework for resilient autonomous navigation in perceptually challenging unknown environments with mobility-stressing elements such as uneven surfaces with rocks and boulders, steep slopes, negative obstacles like cliffs and…

Detecting objects of interest, such as human survivors, safety equipment, and structure access points, is critical to any search-and-rescue operation. Robots deployed for such time-sensitive efforts rely on their onboard sensors to perform…