Deep thinking: DARPA's underground robot challenge

This September, eight teams will converge on the US state of Kentucky for a unique competition. At the Louisville Mega Cavern, several metres below the Earth’s surface, an army of machines developed by some of the world’s leading roboticists will search for backpacks, phones, gas leaks and trapped survivors – all the paraphernalia you might associate with an underground disaster. When the dust settles, the winners will walk away with a million dollars in prize money.

The SubT Challenge is the latest in a long line of flagship competitions run by the US government agency DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), a storied organisation founded by Eisenhower in response to Russia’s success with Sputnik. Central to the development of both the Internet and GPS, DARPA is by no means confined to military applications, something reflected in the fact that its ‘D’ has been axed and reinstated multiple times.