On Sunday, the lab took a field trip to the Anza-Borrego mud caves to collect data to test a simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm and create a ground truth using LiDAR. I was not on the SLAM team, so I instead went with the rest of the group to have fun and crawl around underground.u00a0

Weu00a0 all made our way together to the site of the experiment where we left the science team to begin the data collection. We continued on into the cave until we came to the surface. From there we walked above ground for a bit until returning to the science team for lunch. After lunch, we moved to another cave. This new cave was much narrower and led to us needing to climb up a 10m drop-off as well as crawl through narrow tunnels which were around a foot-and-a-half wide.

Overall, this was a fun trip and my first time underground in a long time. Next visit, I hope to join the science team to learn about how underground mapping is different than indoor or underwater mapping.