CSIRO’s robotics scientists have a lot to celebrate. They were part of a team that represented Australia in one of the world’s hardest robotics competitions, the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. And they just won silver (and a million dollars).
Meet the team
Team CSIRO’s Data61 is made up of members from CSIRO’s Data61, CSIRO spin-out robotics company Emesent, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Together, the scientists coordinated a range of robots to tackle the many competition challenges.
- All-terrain robots: These robots drive around on tracks like a digger or a tank, and form the backbone of the team. One of their most important jobs is carrying drop nodes – powerful, battery-powered Wi-Fi routers that can be dropped off in different places to help the robots communicate with each other.
- UAV drones: These 4-rotored helicopters are fast, and suited to exploring tall rooms. They get a piggy-back ride on an all-terrain robot to help save their battery until they are really needed.
- Quadruped robots: The team also has two 4-legged explorers that can get into tight spaces that bigger, tracked robots can’t. These dog-like robots were named Bluey and Bingo!