Coordinated Robotics scores 169 points in the Cave Circuit Virtual Competition
Nov 17, 2020
The ability to communicate between multiple robots proved a key to success in the Subterranean (SubT) Challenge Cave Circuit Virtual Competition, with self-funded Coordinated Robotics topping the leaderboard and taking home a $250,000 prize using a team of nine autonomous virtual robots. DARPA-funded BARCS earned the second spot, while two other self-funded teams, Dynamo which came in third overall and Robotika, which earned a fourth place finish, will receive $150,000 and $100,000 respectively. Only self-funded teams are eligible for the monetary prizes in the Circuit events, including Cave Circuit. In the Final Event, all teams are eligible to win monetary prizes.
Sixteen teams chose their roster of virtual robots and sensor payloads, some based on real-life subterranean robots, and submitted autonomy and mapping algorithms that SubT Challenge officials then tested across eight cave courses in the cloud-based SubT Simulator. Their robots traversed the cave environments autonomously, without any input or adjustments from human operators. The Cave Circuit Virtual Competition teams earned points by correctly finding, identifying, and localizing up to 20 artifacts hidden in the cave courses within five-meter accuracy.
“The challenges involved in navigating unpredictable caves include tight spaces, rock falls, and lack of visibility – all of which, and more, were incorporated into the virtual caves,” said Dr. Timothy Chung, program manager for the Subterranean Challenge in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “Beyond pride and prize money, competitors in this and other DARPA Grand Challenges are forging new paths that we are confident will lead to important innovations to help both warfighters and first responders.”
The final scores were as follows:
- 169: Coordinated Robotics, self-funded winner of the $250,000 first place prize
- 166: BARCS (Bayesian Adaptive Robot Control System), DARPA-funded
- 158: Dynamo, self-funded winner of the $150,000 second place prize
- 122: Robotika, self-funded winner of the $100,000 third place prize
- 118: SODIUM-24 Robotics, self-funded
- 90: CTU-CRAS-NORLAB (Czech Technical University - Center for Robotics and Autonomous Systems - Northern Robotics Laboratory), self-funded
- 57: Andersons, self-funded
- 46: COLLEMBOLA (Communication Optimized, Low Latency Exploration, Map-Building and Object Localization Autonomy), DARPA-funded
- 42: Flying Fitches, self-funded
- 29: Lizard & Dragonfly Robotics, self-funded
- 25: Irgum, self-funded
- 16: Map Quickly, self-funded
- 6: NUS SEDS (National University of Singapore Students for Exploration and Development of Space), self-funded
- 3: CYNET.ai, self-funded
- 3: AAUNO, self-funded
- 3: MARBLE (Multi-agent Autonomy with Radar-Based Localization for Exploration), self-funded
To learn more about the teams, check out https://www.subtchallenge.com/teams.html.
DARPA previously held Tunnel Circuit and Urban Circuit events featuring both Systems (physical) and Virtual Competitions in which teams demonstrated their autonomy, networking, perception, and mobility capabilities in human-made tunnel and urban underground environments.
“The DARPA Subterranean Challenge is creating a community of multidisciplinary teams with a wide-variety of expertise,” said Dr. Chung. “The best solutions to challenges of navigating the underground will likely be found through combining the ideas of our many talented competitors.”
The Final Event, planned for Fall 2021, will include elements from all three subdomains (Tunnel, Urban, and Cave). The Systems and Virtual Competitions will take place concurrently, with DARPA-funded and self-funded teams competing side by side for final prizes in the respective competitions. Teams in the Systems Competition will compete for up to $2 million in the Final Event, whereas teams in the Virtual Competition will compete for up to $1.5 million.
For additional information on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, please visit www.subtchallenge.com.
Image Caption: SubT Challenge
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