CERBERUS: Autonomous Legged and Aerial Robotic Exploration in the Tunnel and Urban Circuits of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge
Marco Tranzatto, Frank Mascarich, Lukas Bernreiter, Carolina Godinho, Marco Camurri, Shehryar Khattak, Tung T. Dang, Victor Reijgwart, Johannes Löje, David Wisth, Samuel Zimmermann, Huan Nguyen, Marius Fehr, Lukas Solanka, Russell Buchanan, Marko Bjelonic, Nikhil Khedekar, Mathieu Valceschini, Fabian Jenelten, Mihir Dharmadhikari, Timon Homberger, Paolo De Petris, Lorenz Wellhausen, Mihir Kulkarni, Takahiro Miki, Satchel Hirsch, Markus Montenegro, Christos Papachristos, Fabian Tresoldi, Jan Carius, Giorgio Valsecchi, Joonho Lee, Konrad Meyer, Xiangyu Wu, Juan Nieto, Andy Smith, Marco Hutter, Roland Siegwart, Mark W. Mueller, Maurice Fallon, Kostas Alexis
Abstract
Autonomous exploration of subterranean environments constitutes a major frontier for robotic systems, as underground settings present key challenges that can render robot autonomy hard to achieve. This problem has motivated the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, where teams of robots search for objects of interest in various underground environments. In response, we present the CERBERUS system-of-systems, as a unified strategy for subterranean exploration using legged and flying robots. Our proposed approach relies on ANYmal quadraped as primary robots, exploiting their endurance and ability to traverse challenging terrain. For aerial robots, we use both conventional and collision-tolerant multirotors to explore spaces too narrow or otherwise