  Subterranean environments with lots of obstacles, including narrow passages,
large voids, rock falls and absence of illumination were always challenging for
control, navigation, and perception of mobile robots. The limited availability
and access to such environments restricts the development pace of capabilities
for robotic platforms to autonomously accomplish tasks in such challenging
areas. The Subterranean Challenge is a competition focusing on bringing robotic
exploration a step closer to real life applications for man-made underground
tunnels, urban areas and natural cave networks, envisioning advanced assistance
tools for first responders and disaster relief agencies. The challenge offers a
software-based virtual part to showcase technologies in autonomy perception,
networking and mobility for such areas. Thus, the presented open-source virtual
world aims to become a test-bed for evaluating the developed algorithms and
software and to foster mobile robotics developments.
