The word "race" does not always mean monotonous cutting of circles on asphalt. The Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) has staged a grand Subterranean Challenge in which robotic mini-rovers participate. The main prize is a ticket to other planets. There, the winners of the race will explore the caves, inaccessible to the usual technique.

Deep grottoes and caves of other planets are a big mystery for scientists. The fact is that the rovers now available are simply not able to study them properly, as they are poorly oriented underground: satellite navigation does not work, and the compass fails due to the presence of metal deposits. This problem should be solved by the winner of the Subterranean Challenge.

The competition involves the latest developments in the field of robotics - small rovers specially designed to conquer the underground depths. The task of robots is to compile a map of the terrain underground, bypassing all obstacles located on the path and returning to the starting point the object hidden at the end of the “track”. The prize pool of the competition is $ 5 million. More importantly, the winning robot will be used as the basis for the creation of a new spacecraft.

4pda.ru