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Mission

To help revolutionize how we operate in the underground domain, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Subterranean or SubT Challenge seeks novel approaches to rapidly map, navigate, and search underground environments during time-sensitive combat operations or disaster response scenarios.

Rules

Teams from around the world have ONE mission: to demonstrate how their solutions address the unique challenges of underground domains.

They compete in one or both of TWO complementary research tracks: systems and/or the virtual competition.

Teams in both the physical or simulated competitions will compete in THREE circuit events: tunnel, urban and cave subdomains.

Tunnel
Circuit

August & October 2019

Urban
Circuit

February 2020

Cave
Circuit

November 2020

Final
Event

September 2021

Tunnel Circuit

Info

Tunnels can extend many kilometers in length with constrained passages, vertical shafts, and multiple levels. Teams navigate this subdomain during the DARPA Subterranean or SubT Challenge.

The Course

Results

First Place

Explorer 25 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

First Place

Second Place

CoStar 11 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Second Place

Third Place

CTU-CRAS-NORLAB 10 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Third Place

First Place

Coordinated Robotics 50 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

First Place

Second Place

BARCS 21 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Second Place

Third Place

Sodium-24 Robotics 14 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Third Place

Urban Circuit

Info

Urban underground environments can have complex layouts with multiple stories and span several city blocks. Watch teams conquer this subdomain during the DARPA Subterranean or SubT Challenge.

The Course

Results

First Place

CoSTAR 16 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

First Place

Second Place

Explorer 11 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Second Place

Third Place

CTU-CRAS-NORLAB 10 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Third Place

First Place

BARCS 150 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

First Place

Second Place

Coordinated Robotics 115 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Second Place

Third Place

Robotika 21 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Third Place

Cave Circuit

Info

Natural cave networks often have irregular geological structures, with both constrained passages and large caverns. Watch teams take on this subdomain during the DARPA Subterranean or SubT Challenge.

The Course

Results

The Cave Circuit Systems Competition was not held due to COVID-19. Check out the virtual competition results!

First Place

Coordinated Robotics 169 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

First Place

Second Place

BARCS 166 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Second Place

Third Place

Dynamo 158 points

endurance
agility
speed
acuity
range
scope
Resilience

Third Place

Final Event

The Triatholon

After three years of development, DARPA’s Subterranean or SubT Challenge teams face the final event.

Teams took on a series of preliminary individual circuit events over the last two years. Now they tackle elements from all three subdomains at the same time!

Sept. 21-24, 2021