Innovations & technologies

DARPA wants researchers that think like Dr. Evil, but for good

From border-defying tunnels on the Korean Peninsula to ISIS-operated underground escapes in Syria, a lack of situational awareness, poor air quality, uncertain terrain and obstructed communications are all hazards especially pertinent to the subterranean battlefield, leading defense officials clamoring for innovative technological solutions.

“The DARPA Subterranean Challenge aims to provide previously unimaginable situational awareness capabilities for operations underground,” said Timothy Chung, program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office.

“We want to take these deep, dark, dangerous, dirty jobs — take the human out of that — and use autonomous systems and robotic systems to leverage their capabilities to help protect our war fighters,” added Bob Hastie, a senior technical adviser at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Like previous DARPA competitions, teams will compete in a series of challenges, or circuits, each testing a different aspect of operating robot’s underground. The circuits will begin in 2019 and will take place approximately every six months.

The first challenge will place competitors' robots in human-made tunnels, such as those used by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The second will focus on underground urban environments — think large networks of mass transit and metropolitan infrastructure tunnels. The third circuit will force robots to navigate and communicate with operators from within the unforgiving confines and tiny crevices of naturally occurring caves.