Important Innovations

Vegas Tunnel  Project to Move Self-Driving Cars About Done                          Source:  The Boring Company Vegas Loop Elon Musk's Vision - "Embrace Tunnels" Entrepreneur Elon Musk has made major global news in 2020 with his huge SpaceX accomplishments and Tesla leadership in electric vehicles.  He's about to make more news with his tunnel company, The Boring Company.  Musk has almost completed his first operational Loop tunnel under Las Vegas.   In a tweet, Musk said that tunnels under cities with self-driving cars "will feel like warp drive".  That's his description of the future of urban transportation.  For the past year under contract by the city of Las Vegas, Musk has been building an underground loop tunnel system for public use.  It will shuttle passengers in self-driving Tesla cars to destinations in Vegas within minutes. Musk's Vision Tunnels are a key pa...

DARPA Tweet for Urban Underground Space For Research and Experimentation Source:  DARPA DARPA's Underground Challenge - US Defense Dept. Initiative This tweet sound like a search for a location for a science fiction movie.  But it's from DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, that is pursing its Subterranean Challenge.  That's a competition to develop new technologies to rapidly map, navigate, search and exploit complex underground environments during natural disasters, terrorism and big, underground accidents.  DARPA's targeted research locations include massive manmade tunnels for mass transit and underground structures like extensive parking lots with stores and offices under cities. Unusual and Intriguing Request To say the least, this is an unusual request from DARPA and the deadline is tomorrow August 30, 2019.  They are looking for company or university managed large tunnels and underground structures to host res...

Boring Company to Set-Up Operations in China For China, Tunnel Based Transportation Systems Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk just announced that he's going to launch operations of his Boring Company in China.  He'll do so during a trip to China for an artificial intelligence conference late this month.  The Boring company builds tunnel based transportation systems, including the Hyperloop. From LA & Las Vegas to China Musk has momentum going with the Boring Company, which is far from boring.  Musk recently won his first commercial contract to build a mile long shuttle to ferry tourists around the Las Vegas Convention Center.  He's also built a test tunnel at the company's headquarters in suburban Los Angeles.  In July, he raised $120 million from outside investors to help fund his tunnel projects and proposals.  He wants to build a tunnel system to connect Baltimore and Washington, DC.  That is currently under environmental review. ...

The Robot Olympics Source:  DARPA DARPA's Subterranean Robotic Challenge Gets Underway The Pentagon's DARPA believes the next robotic challenge is for robots to autonomously operate in dangerous underground areas such as cave networks, tunnel systems and urban undergrounds.  Missions include investigatory work and search and rescue.  The purpose is to keep humans out of harms way. DARPA will kick off its Subterranean Robotic Challenge this weekend.  Some of the world's leading roboticists and their technology are competing in the Challenge which continues through August 2021.  For a great news blog on this go to,  Important Innovations Collection: SubT - Next Challenge for Robots : DARPA's Subterranean Robotic Challenge Source:  DARPA The Robot Olympics Are About to Begin The US Defense Department's Adva...

Pentagon's DARPA on a Mission Stock Image Subterranean Environment For First Responders and Soldiers The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA, is seeking new commercial technologies to map in 3D underground environments.  The environments include caves, manmade tunnels and other underground structures like subways.  There is a dual need:  for first responders and soldiers. 3D Mapping and Surveying DARPA wants both 3D mapping and surveying.  They just put out a request for information.  There are a number of conditions DARPA wants to overcome in these environments to enable a more safe and rapid response from rescue teams and combat soldiers.  The problems include GPS not working, narrow passages, darkness and dangerous, limited access. Top of the Line Available Commercial Technology DARPA wants highly accurate geolocation data on targeted areas and high resolution georeferenced surveys.  They are particularly ...

DARPA's Subterranean Robotic Olympics Robotic Race to Win DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, gathered leading roboticists in a Kentucky cave recently and issued its most daring challenge yet.  Design robots to navigate some of the most unforgiving environments - a grueling course of tunnels and caves. Triathlon DARPA has split the competition into 3 fields.  Tunnel environments with a lot of passageways.  Caves with crags, slopes and tight squeezes.  And, an urban, bunker like environment with lots of stairs.  The winning robot will be the fastest at overcoming all 3 environments. Prestigious Competing Teams NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, Caltech and Carnegie Mellon are among the competitors.  The race starts in August 2019.  The key to winning is developing a robot flexible enough to overcome cave, tunnel and urban environments.  Some uses of this emerging robotic tech:  search and rescue and ur...

Real-time Mapping For Unban Infrastructure Like Subway Systems, Tunnels, Caves It's a DARPA technology challenge.  The Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency is challenging teams to build tech systems that rapidly chart urban infrastructure like subway systems, also caves and tunnels.   It's called the Subterranean Challenge.  DARPA wants tech to navigate underground areas while humans stay on the surface.  They want the systems to rapidly map and search often dangerous underground areas. For the Military, First Responders This tech is primarily to be developed for the military and first responders in subterranean conditions.  Often they face a time sensitive situation, difficult technical challenges, dynamic terrain, bad communications and an expansive area of operation. These systems could also be used for infrastructure inspection, mining, construction and archeology. 3 Year Challenge This is a 3 year challenge for technolo...