CERBERUS: DARPA Subterranean Challenge
Project Homepage: external page https://www.subt-cerberus.org/
Project Duration: 09.2018 - 09.2021
CERBERUS envisions a system of walking and flying robots equipped with multi-modal perception systems, navigation and mapping autonomy, and self-organized networked communications that enable robust and reliable navigation, exploration, mapping, and object search in complex, sensingdegraded, stringent, dynamic, and rough underground settings. The robotic embodiment of these capabilities will enable unprecedented levels of operational awareness in such environments, and will thus become a game changer for a large variety of subterranean operations in the civilian and the military domain alike. For the execution of CERBERUS, frequent and comprehensive field evaluation in SubT-relevant test sites such as mines, tunnels, sewers, and caves is of paramount importance. Our team has access in such environments and a plan for relevant experimentation for every phase of the project.
Team “CERBERUS” is based on the collaboration between Prof. Dr. Kostas Alexis (Autonomous Robots Lab at UNR), Prof. Dr. Marco Hutter (Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich), Prof. Dr. Roland Siegwart (Autonomous Systems Lab at ETH Zurich), Prof. Dr. Mark Mueller (HiPeR Lab at UCBerkeley), Sierra Nevada Corporation based in Sparks, NV and Flyability based in Switzerland. The team members have long and close collaboration, and have established common software grounds among their systems.
In alignment with the goals and details of the DARPA SubT challenge, CERBERUS aims to achieve superior performance results in the competition events. Those will include the autonomous exploration and search inside a) a man-made tunnel network (“Tunnel Circuit”) during Phase 1, b) a multi-level urban underground structure (“Urban Circuit”) and a natural cave environment (“Cave Circuit”) during Phase 2, as well as c) a comprehensive test environment involving all challenges of the previously mentioned types (“Final Event”) during Phase 3. Our team looks forward to the novel research investigations and to breaking new ground towards resilient robotic autonomy in subterranean operations. The CERBERUS technological solution aims to be a stepping stone for complex applications in domains such as search and rescue, reconnaissance, inspection, as well as security and military tasks.