Control Engineering

Paul Grayson

Thursday Update
August 9, 2007

DARPA announced today that both the Urban Challenge National Qualification Event (NQE) in Oct. 2007 and the Urban Challenge Final Event on Nov. 3, 2007 will take place at the Urban Military Training Facility located on the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif.  This location was selected because its network of urban roads best represent the type of terrain American forces operate in overseas. The robotic vehicles will be compete against each other in a series of military supply missions at the facility. 

The Victorville site is used by the U.S. Army to train for urban operations. Photographs of the site and more information about the event are available at http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge.  



At the NQE and the Final Event, the robots must operate entirely autonomously, without human intervention, and obey California traffic laws while performing maneuvers such as merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, and avoiding moving obstacles. Dr. Tether noted, “The vehicles must perform as well as someone with a California Driver’s License.”

Of the 89 original teams 36 have been selected as Semi-Finalists by the DARPA judges to go on to the NQE at which 20 Finalists will be chosen to move on to the Final Even.   The Final Event will be used to determine which teams will get the $2 million first place prize, the $1 million second place prize and the $500,000 third place prize.  There are no government contracts associated with winning the DARPA Urban Challenge, it's purpose is just to prove it can be done.

The 36 Semi-Finalist teams are:
#04 Austin Robot Technology - Austin, Texas
#06 AvantGuardium - Bethesda, Maryland
#07 Axion Racing - Westlake Village, California
#78 Ben Franklin Racing Team - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#11 CarOLO - New York, New York
#15 Gator Nation - Gainesville, Florida
#79 Golem Group - Santa Monica, California
#19 Insight Racing - Cary, North Carolina
#20 Intelligent Vehicle Systems - Dearborn, Michigan
#65 MIT - Cambridge, Massachusetts
#28 Mojavaton - Grand Junction, Colorado
#31 Ody-Era - Kokomo, Indiana
#32 OSU-ACT - Columbus, Ohio
#36 Princeton University - Princeton, New Jersey
#42 SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering - Thousand Oaks, California
#46 Stanford Racing Team - Stanford, California
#47 Sting Racing - Atlanta, Georgia
#48 Tartan Racing - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#50 Team AnnieWay - Palo Alto, California
#51 Team Autonomous Solutions - Petersboro, Utah
#53 Team Berlin - Houston, Texas
#54 Team CajunBot - Lafayette, Louisiana
#55 Team Caltech - Pasadena, California
#57 Team Case - Cleveland, Ohio
#58 Team Cornell - Ithaca, New York
#59 Team Cybernet - Ann Arbor, Michigan
#61 Team Gray - Metairie, Louisiana
#63 Team Jefferson - Crozet, Virginia
#64 Team Juggernaut - Sandy, Utah
#74 Team-LUX - Woodstock, Maryland
#57 Team Oshkosh Truck - Oshkosh, Wisconsin
#71 Team UCF - Orlando, Florida
#72 Team Urbanator - Littleton, Colorado
#85 University of Utah - Salt Lake City, Utah
#87 UU - Westminster, Maryland
#88 VictorTango - Blacksburg, Virginia

Dr. Tether told attendees at DARPATech 2007 that he was at a team-site visit and was surprised how well the team’s autonomous vehicle made it through an intersection with other cars, just as if there was a human driver in the vehicle. “The depth and quality of this year’s field of competitors is a testimony to how far the technology has advanced since the first Grand Challenge in 2004. DARPA thanks all the contestants for their hard work and dedication and congratulates the teams selected as semi-finalists,” Dr. Tether said.

The DARPA Urban Challenge is the third in a series of competitions to encourage the development of autonomous robotic ground vehicle technology which will save lives on the battlefield. Safe operation in traffic is essential for the use of autonomous ground vehicles by the US military.  

If you would like to see a webcast of Dr. Tether's announcement at DARPATech 2007 today, it is available on line at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=41666 

Posted by Paul Grayson on August 9, 2007 | Comments (0)