The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected 12 qualifying teams to compete in the next phase of a contest that will showcase algorithms designed to help robots navigate simulated underground scenarios for object localization work.
Participants can submit their autonomous systems for the preliminary round of the Subterranean Challenge virtual competition finals on the program's online portal through July 29 and the top teams will advance to the prize round that will take place from Sept. 21st to 24th, DARPA said Wednesday.
The agency chose eligible virtual robots from SubT Tech Repo, a digital library of subterranean technologies. DARPA will hold the SubT Challenge's virtual and real-world segments simultaneously, with the latter setting taking place at the Louisville Mega Cavern in Kentucky.
Both events will feature tunnel, cave and urban environments with similar challenge elements such as a rough terrain. The grand winner will receive $750,000 while the second and third placers will get $500,000 and $250,000, respectively.