Team of underground rescue robots wins $2 million DARPA prize

By David Hambling

A team of flying and walking robots has claimed a $2 million prize for successfully exploring an underground complex as part of a competition run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

DARPA regularly holds contests to encourage fledgling technologies, most notably with self-driving cars – several teams who entered a DARPA challenge in 2005 went on to start companies in the industry.

This latest event, which took place at the Louisville Mega Cavern in Kentucky last month, tasked robots with searching for specific items in …