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Typical Bot Workday
October 29, 2007

Each of the thirty-five DARPA Urban Challenge bots are being put through their paces, here is CajunBot II's day, which is typical of what each of the other teams and vehicles are doing. 

Team CajunBot

CajunBot II's ability to park and obey traffic signals was tested at 7:30 a.m. today. The bot made it out of the starting gate and around a curve to a stop sign. It put its blinker on, turned right then made a left at the next stop sign. It traveled a bit more then paused. A partition in the road which reduced from two lanes to one caused the bot to stop right as the 40-minute  time trial was ending.

"We've gotten a lot further this morning than a lot of other bots," said Scott Wilson, Team CajunBot advisor. "It's not about pass or fail in qualifying rounds. Its how you solve problems you encounter."

The team was heading back to a makeshift lab in the pit area for a debriefing on this morning's run. Cameras inside the bot record its every move. A simulation program developed by Team CajunBot is used to analyze data collected from computers in the bot along with the video. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOfNGJw09Ng  note: once at this location there are many driverless vehicle videos to watch so plan to be there a while and check some of them out.

"We're going to go back and look at the data we have. We'll make the necessary adjustments and then begin planning for tomorrow's qualifying round," said Wilson.

Team members were also hoping to catch some sleep today also. Many have only had a total of four hours of sleep since qualifying began.

"We're working on this day and night," said Wilson. "The talent and teamwork we have on this team is unmatched."

Late yesterday, officials with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced additional qualifying rounds. Each team will once again run through the three testing areas. Tomorrow morning, Team CajunBot will head to Area C where the bot has to react to oncoming traffic in intersections.

Testing will begin once again at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.

The top 20 teams selected as Finalists  for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Race will be announced Nov. 1, 2007 and will compete against each other on Saturday Nov. 3, 2007.  Prizes in Saturday's race are $2 million for first place,  $1 million for second place and $500,000 for third place.  All thirty five teams were given a participation award and bragging rights the first day of the elimination trials. 

GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on October 29, 2007 | Comments (0)