NASA Robots Rove Through Caves for Underground DARPA Competition (Video)

Robots from all over the world are about to go on a subterranean adventure, competing against each other in mining tunnels to determine which ones can best navigate and find objects underground and do so autonomously. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting the Subterranean Challenge Systems Competition on Aug. 15-22 in Pittsburgh as a way to develop technology for the military and first responders to map and search subterranean areas. A team led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will be one of 11 teams taking part in the competition with wheeled rovers, drones and climbing robots that can rise on pinball-flipper-shaped treads to scale obstacles, NASA officials said in a statement. A team from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is taking part in the underground competition on August 15-22. The same technology applied in the competition underground can also be utilized in space for future NASA missions that explore caves and lava tubes on other planets.