Everything Worked … Team Explorer Proud of Final Run Strategy

Despite one of Team Explorer's ground robots returning to the garage with bent parts and covered in mud, the team was proud of how it performed during the final run of DARPA's SubT Challenge.

"This one drove off a cliff," said Matt Travers, one of the team's co-leads, pointing to the smallest ground robot. "But I think it did so in a very valiant way.

The team sent in eight robots during the one-hour run. Three ground robots, its legged robot, and four drones. Three drones launched from the start gate and one from the back of a ground robot.

"Everything worked as we wanted it to," said Sebastian Scherer, co-lead of the team. "We explored a lot of the course and identified a lot of objects."

Travers said the robots looked great on course.

"Honestly, everything on the run went how we wanted it to," Travers said. "All week we've been chasing issues, and in this run, there were none of those issues."

"The system really came together and everyone contributed," said Geoff Hollinger, a team co-lead. "It looked good. It looked smooth."

"Now let's go get some food and some rest."

Highlights from the final run will air on SubTV on Friday. An award ceremony is scheduled for 2 p.m. that day.