NeBula: Quest for Robotic Autonomy in Challenging Environments; TEAM CoSTAR at the DARPA Subterranean Challenge

This paper presents and discusses algorithms, hardware, and software architecture developed by the TEAM CoSTAR (Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Robots), competing in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Specifically, it presents the techniques utilized within the Tunnel (2019) and Urban (2020) co...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Agha, Ali, Otsu, Kyohei, Morrell, Benjamin, Fan, David D, Thakker, Rohan, Santamaria-Navarro, Angel, Sung-Kyun, Kim, Bouman, Amanda, Xianmei Lei, Edlund, Jeffrey, Ginting, Muhammad Fadhil, Ebadi, Kamak, Anderson, Matthew, Pailevanian, Torkom, Terry, Edward, Wolf, Michael, Tagliabue, Andrea, Vaquero, Tiago Stegun, Palieri, Matteo, Tepsuporn, Scott, Chang, Yun, Kalantari, Arash, Chavez, Fernando, Lopez, Brett, Funabiki, Nobuhiro, Miles, Gregory, Touma, Thomas, Buscicchio, Alessandro, Tordesillas, Jesus, Alatur, Nikhilesh, Nash, Jeremy, Walsh, William, Jung, Sunggoo, Lee, Hanseob, Kanellakis, Christoforos, Mayo, John, Harper, Scott, Kaufmann, Marcel, Dixit, Anushri, Correa, Gustavo, Lee, Carlyn, Gao, Jay, Merewether, Gene, Maldonado-Contreras, Jairo, Salhotra, Gautam, Maira Saboia Da Silva, Ramtoula, Benjamin, Kubo, Yuki, Fakoorian, Seyed, Hatteland, Alexander, Kim, Taeyeon, Bartlett, Tara, Stephens, Alex, Kim, Leon, Bergh, Chuck, Heiden, Eric, Lew, Thomas, Cauligi, Abhishek, Heywood, Tristan, Kramer, Andrew, Leopold, Henry A, Choi, Chris, Daftry, Shreyansh, Toupet, Olivier, Wee, Inhwan, Thakur, Abhishek, Feras, Micah, Beltrame, Giovanni, Nikolakopoulos, George, Shim, David, Carlone, Luca, Burdick, Joel
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 18.10.2021
Subjects
Algorithms
Autonomy
Computer architecture
Decision making
Mars surface
Mission planning
Motion planning
Nebulae
Reasoning
Robots
Tubes
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This paper presents and discusses algorithms, hardware, and software architecture developed by the TEAM CoSTAR (Collaborative SubTerranean Autonomous Robots), competing in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Specifically, it presents the techniques utilized within the Tunnel (2019) and Urban (2020) competitions, where CoSTAR achieved 2nd and 1st place, respectively. We also discuss CoSTAR's demonstrations in Martian-analog surface and subsurface (lava tubes) exploration. The paper introduces our autonomy solution, referred to as NeBula (Networked Belief-aware Perceptual Autonomy). NeBula is an uncertainty-aware framework that aims at enabling resilient and modular autonomy solutions by performing reasoning and decision making in the belief space (space of probability distributions over the robot and world states). We discuss various components of the NeBula framework, including: (i) geometric and semantic environment mapping; (ii) a multi-modal positioning system; (iii) traversability analysis and local planning; (iv) global motion planning and exploration behavior; (i) risk-aware mission planning; (vi) networking and decentralized reasoning; and (vii) learning-enabled adaptation. We discuss the performance of NeBula on several robot types (e.g. wheeled, legged, flying), in various environments. We discuss the specific results and lessons learned from fielding this solution in the challenging courses of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge competition.
ISSN:2331-8422