REVOLUTIONIZE HOW WE OPERATE IN THE UNDERGROUND DOMAIN

Complex underground settings present significant challenges for military and civilian first responders.

The hazards vary drastically across domains that can degrade or change over time and are often too high-risk for personnel to enter.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean or “SubT” Challenge seeks novel approaches to rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments during time-sensitive combat operations or disaster response scenarios.

(The DARPA Subterranean Challenge seeks multidisciplinary teams from around the world to compete in the development of the autonomy, perception, networking, and mobility technologies necessary to map explore and search underground networks in unpredictable conditions. Courtesy of DARPAtv and YouTube. Posted on May 24, 2019)

Eleven Systems teams and five Virtual teams from around the globe have qualified to compete in the Subterranean Challenge Tunnel Circuit; additional teams may qualify for Virtual competition through June 10

Each will attempt to remotely map, identify, and report the greatest number of artifacts along the passages of a Pittsburgh research mine in the Subterranean Challenge Tunnel Circuit.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Mining Program manages the formerly operational mine, which will serve as the arena for the Systems event August 15-22, 2019.

The Tunnel Circuit is the first of three circuits in which teams will test their systems and sensors in physical, representative subterranean courses.

(The DARPA Subterranean Challenge is headed to Pittsburgh for the Tunnel Circuit, the first scored challenge event, August 15-22, 2019! Qualified teams will attempt to navigate a former operational mine. Courtesy of DARPAtv and YouTube. Posted on May 3, 2019.) 

The Urban Circuit will take place in February 2020, followed by the Cave Circuit in August 2020, and the Final Event incorporating all three subdomains will be in August 2021.

Virtual competitions will take place concurrently with each of the physical competitions.

In the virtual events, teams will develop software and algorithms using virtual models of systems, environments, and terrain to compete in simulation-based events.

(Follow along the twists and turns in a walking tour of the Edgar Experimental Mine with Dr. Timothy Chung, program manager for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. The SubT Integration Exercise, known as STIX, took place at the Colorado School of Mines’ Edgar Experimental Mine. Nine teams hailing from four continents gathered in Idaho Springs, Colorado, the week of April 5-11, 2019, to test autonomous air and ground systems for navigating the dark, dangerous, dirty, and unpredictable underground domain. Courtesy of DARPAtv and YouTube. Posted on May 31, 2019.) 

The following teams have qualified to participate in the Tunnel Circuit:

BARCS: Bayesian Adaptive Robot Control System (Virtual)

• Michigan Technological University/Michigan Tech Research Institute

CERBERUS: CollaborativE walking & flying RoBots for autonomous ExploRation in Underground Settings (Systems)

• University of Nevada, Reno
• ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• Sierra Nevada Corporation
• University of California, Berkeley
• Flyability, Switzerland

COLLEMBOLLA: Communication Optimized, Low Latency Exploration, Map-Building and Object Localization Autonomy (Virtual)

• Scientific Systems Company, Inc.

Coordinated Robotics (Systems and Virtual)

CoStar: Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Resilient Robots (Systems)

• Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• California Institute of Technology
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• KAIST, South Korea

CRETISE: Collaborative Robot Exploration and Teaming In Subterranean Environments (Systems)

• Endeavor Robotics
• Neya Systems

CSIRO Data 61 (Systems)

• Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
• Emesent, Australia
• Georgia Institute of Technology

CTU-CRAS (Systems)

• Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
• Université Laval, Canada

Explorer (Systems)

• Carnegie Mellon University
• Oregon State University

MARBLE: Multi-agent Autonomy with Radar-Based Localization for Exploration (Systems)

• University of Colorado, Boulder
• University of Colorado, Denver
• Scientific Systems Company, Inc.

Metastable (Virtual)

NCTU: National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan (Systems)

PLUTO: Pennsylvania Laboratory for Underground Tunnel Operations (Systems)

• University of Pennsylvania
• Exyn Technologies
• Ghost Robotics

Robotika (Systems and Virtual)

• Robotika International, Czech Republic and United States
• Robotika.cz, Czech Republic
• Czech University of Life Science, Czech Republic
• Centre for Field Robotics, Czech Republic
• Cogito Team, Switzerland

DARPA will announce additional qualified teams for the Virtual competition of the Tunnel Circuit following the June 10 deadline.

A new qualification scenario was made available in advance of a Subterranean Autonomy tutorial held on May 24, 2019, at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Montreal.

Teams that have previously submitted to the Virtual competition also are invited to refine or send new submissions. Teams may qualify using either the original qualification scenario or the new scenario, and attendance at the ICRA workshop is not required.

Teams interested in qualifying in the Virtual competition for the Tunnel Circuit must submit a team registration and create an account for the SubT Challenge Virtual Portal.

To qualify for future events for either the Systems or Virtual competitions in the SubT Challenge, teams may submit their qualification materials on a rolling basis.

Requirements can be found in the SubT Challenge Qualification Guide, which is available on SubT Challenge Resources Page.

Interested teams also are encouraged to join the SubT Community Forum, where they can engage with other participants and ask questions.

Teams in the Systems competition will compete for up to $2 million in the Systems Final event, with up to $200,000 in additional prizes available for self-funded teams in each of the Systems Circuit events.

Teams in the Virtual competition will compete for up to $1.5 million in the Virtual Final event, with additional prizes of up to $500,000 for self-funded teams in each of the Virtual Circuit events.

DARPA Takes Home Platinum in 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA

• ‘Excellence in Homeland Security’

• Subterranean (SubT) Challenge

The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is specifically designed to honor distinguished government and vendor solutions that deliver enhanced value, benefit and intelligence to end users in a variety of government, homeland security and public safety vertical markets.

Over 130 distinguished guests representing National, State and Local Governments, and Industry Leading Corporate Firms, gathered from across North America, Europe and the Middle East to be honored among their peers in their respective fields which included:

• The Department of Homeland Security
• The Federal Protective Service (FPS)
• Argonne National Laboratory
• The Department of Homeland Security
• The Department of Justice
• The Security Exchange Commission Office of Personnel Management
• U.S. Customs and Border Protection
• Viasat, Hanwha Techwin, Lenel, Konica Minolta Business Solutions, Verint, Canon U.S.A., BriefCam, Pivot3, Milestone Systems, Allied Universal, Ameristar Perimeter Security and More!

The Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program highlighting the most cutting-edge and forward-thinking security solutions coming onto the market today, to ensure our readers have the information they need to stay ahead of the competition, and keep our Nation safe – one facility, street, and city at a time.

The 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program is Proudly Sponsored by ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, and Desktop Alert.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.

Comprehensive List of Categories Include:

Access Control/ Identification	Personal/Protective Equipment	Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism
Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System	Interagency Interdiction Operation	Cloud Computing/Storage Solution
Facial/IRIS Recognition	Body Worn Video Product	Cyber Security
Video Surveillance/VMS	Mobile Technology	Anti-Malware
Audio Analytics	Disaster Preparedness	ID Management
Thermal/Infrared Camera	Mass Notification System	Fire & Safety
Metal/Weapon Detection	Rescue Operations	Critical Infrastructure
License Plate Recognition	Detection Products	And Many Others!

Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?

Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

2018 Champions Edition

See the 2018 ‘ASTORS’ Champions Edition – ‘Best Products of 2018 ‘ Year in Review’ for in-depth coverage of the outstanding products and services of firms receiving American Security Today’s 2018‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards.’

 

Enter Early to Maximize Media Coverage of your Products and Services at Kickoff, and Get the Recognition Your Organization Deserves!

And be sure to Register Early for the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon at ISC East 2019 to ensure your place at this limited- space event!

2018 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Luncheon at ISC East

Why the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program?

American Security Today’s comprehensive Annual Homeland Security Awards Program is organized to recognize the most distinguished vendors of physical, IT, port security, law enforcement, and first responders, in acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to ‘Keep our Nation Secure, One City at a Time.’

Why American Security Today?

American Security Today is uniquely focused on the broader Homeland Security & Public Safety marketplace with over 70,000 readers at the Federal, State and local levels of government as well as firms allied to government.

The old traditional security marketplace has been covered by a host of security publications that have changed little over many years.

American Security Today brings forward a fresh compelling look and read with our customized digital publications that provides our readers with solutions to their challenges.

Our Editorial staff provides a full plate of topics for our AST monthly digital editions, AST Website and AST Daily News Alerts.

The editorial calendar and AST’s high drawing website features 23 different Technology and Marketing Sectors such as Access Control, Perimeter Protection, Video Surveillance/Analytics, Airport Security, Border Security, CBRNE Detection, Border Security, Ports, Cybersecurity, Networking Security, Encryption, Law Enforcement, First Responders, Campus Security, Security Services, Corporate Facilities and Emergency Response among others.

These sectors are part of the new integration, where these major applications communicate with one another in a variety of solutions to protect our cities and critical infrastructure.

AST has Expanded readership into vital Critical Infrastructure audiences such as Protection of Nuclear Facilities, Water Plants & Dams, Bridges & Tunnels, and other Potential targets of terrorism.

Other areas of concern include Transportation Hubs, Public Assemblies, Government Facilities, Sporting & Concert Stadiums, our Nation’s Schools & Universities, and Commercial Business Destinations – enticing targets for extremist or lone wolf attacks due to the large number of persons and resources clustered together.

To Learn More and access additional information on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, please visit www.subtchallenge.com, or email questions to SubTChallenge@darpa.mil.