When planning the SubT Challenge, DARPA wanted everything in the course to be as realistic as possible. “We spent a lot of time replicating challenges that we see in real-world underground environments,” says Viktor Orekhov, a robotics engineer who designed the course.
The course consisted of three different settings (see Course Map). A tunnel section featured mine cart rails, mud, and water. A cave section included slippery, tight passages and artificial rock formations like stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling and stalagmites along the ground. Finally, an urban section replicated subway tunnels and underground storage areas.
The designers also created dynamic obstacles that would activate when a robot moved past. A section of ceiling might collapse behind the robot, forcing it to find a different way out of the cave. Or thick smoke might pour into an area, interfering with the robot’s vision.
As a robot navigated the dark, winding course, its goal was to find specific artifacts that represented real-life objects or hazards. Mannequins stood in for survivors. Cell phones and backpacks gave clues that survivors might be nearby. Robots also needed to identify hazardous gas leaks, since they could pose a danger to survivors and human rescuers. Teams would earn a point for each artifact their robots correctly classified and reported. The team with the most points after one hour of searching would win.