To achieve autonomy in complex real-world exploration missions, we consider deployment strategies for a team of robots with heterogeneous autonomy capabilities. In this work, we formulate a multi-robot exploration mission and compute an operation policy to maintain robot team productivity and maximize mission rewards. The environment description, robot capability, and mission outcome are modeled as a Markov decision process (MDP). We also include constraints in real-world operation, such as sensor failures, limited communication coverage, and mobility-stressing elements. Then, we study the proposed operation model on a real-world scenario in the context of the DARPA Subterranean (SubT) Challenge. The computed deployment policy is also compared against the human-based operation strategy in the final competition of the SubT Challenge. Finally, using the proposed model, we discuss the design trade-off on building a multi-robot team with heterogeneous capabilities.

As the countdown started, a boxy robot with four big wheels carrying a host of cameras, sensors, communication equipment, autonomy software and the computing power to make it all work together rolled down a ramp into a dark tunnel. It did not know where it was, what was ahead of it or where it was going. It was there to explore. Over the next hour, more robots followed: wheeled robots, drones and a dog-like quadruped. Team Explorer deployed eight robots for the final round of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean, or SubT, Challenge -- a three-year competition during which teams from around the world raced to develop robotic systems that could autonomously operate in underground environments like caves, mines or subway stations for search and rescue missions.

Cornelius, a hog-sized robot with fat rubber tank treads, has come to a stop in a small, verdant courtyard on the Spanish revival campus of California State University, Channel Islands. "It's either autonomous or broken," Kevin Knoedler says, squinting into the summer sun, his face obscured by a mask and a hat with ear flaps. Knoedler, who has been building robots for decades, knows that it can be hard to tell the difference between a machine that's kaput and one that's cogitating. "Autonomous," says Andrew Herdering, a fourth-year mechatronics engineering major. Suddenly, Cornelius sparks to life.

In times of crisis, we all want to know where the robots are! And young roboticists just starting their careers, or simply thinking about robotics as a career, ask us'How can robotics help?' and'What can I do to help?'. Cluster organizations like Silicon Valley Robotics can serve as connection points between industry and academia, between undergrads and experts, between startups and investors, which is why we rapidly organized a weekly discussion with experts about "COVID-19, robots and us" (video playlist). During our online series, we heard from roboticists directly helping with all sorts of COVID-19 response, like Gui Cavalcanti of Open Source Medical Supplies and Alder Riley of Helpful Engineering. Both groups are great examples of the incredible power of people working together.

One of the biggest urban legends growing up in New York City were rumors about alligators living in the sewers. This myth even inspired a popular children's book called "The Great Escape: Or, The Sewer Story," with illustrations of reptiles crawling out of apartment toilets. To this day, city dwellers anxiously look at manholes wondering what lurks below. This curiosity was shared last month by the US Defense Department with its appeal for access to commercial underground complexes. The US military's research arm, DARPA, launched the Subterranean (or SubT) Challenge in 2017 with the expressed goal of developing systems that enhance "situational awareness capabilities" for underground missions.