Matthew Nelson
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has issued a request for information to seek virtual models of vehicles, sensors and underground areas in line with a competition that will cater to subterranean domain technologies.
DARPA said Friday it is looking for robot controllers, sensor software packages and simulation meshes that will support planning and informational efforts for the Subterranean Challenge event.
The virtual models are envisioned to feature vehicles with varying traits and methods in locomotion to assist robots in the challenge. The sensor packages are also required to work with the Ignition Gazebo simulator tool to allow incorporation into the SubT Tech Repo, a database of simulation assets for the contest.
Interested vendors may submit their responses to the RFI until March 31. DARPA noted they may employ the models to optimize the SubT Virtual Testbed tool’s simulation features and implement them to the competition.
The Subterranean Challenge is established by DARPA to build approaches and technologies that will optimize underground operations.
