Control Engineering

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Team #28 Mojavaton
September 17, 2007

I was reminded this evening while preparing this column for publication that the United States is at war. War was declared on the United States of America by enemies we didn't realize we had.  Now that we are in it, it is up to each of us to do what we can to defend the country.  As a veteran and engineer, doing my part means being team leader of AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL MAGIC's team which is preparing a vehicle for the DARPA Urban Challenge, and keep doing that until the US Army gets the driverless system they need - or until I can't do it any more.  

The tires and rims on our M-215 Army truck are original 1954 issue.  While they work fine, we would like to update them to the safer style used today and while doing that switch to Super-Singles instead of dual wheels.  This would mean replacing seven tires and seven rims.  Cleverly the tire companies have priced the tires so that a Super-Single, which replaces two truck tires, costs as much as two truck tires do.  Rims are about the same price, just a bit wider and a different style than what is on the truck now.

While the aggrivations of being a team leader are many and engineering problems look simple to me by comparison, the AIM team is making good progress.  Yes, there are teams ahead of us and there are teams behind us but we are competing against the problem, not the other teams.  We intend to complete our vehicle whether we are in the race or not.  I am looking forward to a cross country publicity tour to show off our sponsors products to the public and government officials all along the way.  Would you like to help make it happen? 

Team #28 on my list is Mojavaton (pronounced “mo-HAH-vuh-tahn”) and is from Grand Junction, CO. 
They did not get one of the million dollar development grants but are one of the 36 teams selected for the elimination trials the week before the race. 

Mojavaton's vehicle, White Knight, is a 2001 Nissan Xterra outfitted with a military grade GPS and inertial navigation unit that can correctly determine its location on the earth to within 4”.  Others sensors include laser range finders, radar, and stereo vision cameras that are capable of sensing the presence and location of obstacles, such as other cars.  

White Knight plans its course through city streets, passes other cars, negotiates intersections, merges into traffic, makes U-turns and parks itself as required by the race rules.  The requirement that the vehicle be outfitted with the “taxicab algorithm” to force its way through an intersection crowded with cars is to insure that the vehicles are aggressive enough to get the job done.    While the vehicles must drive defensively, DARPA does not want any of the timid vehicles of the past.  There is also a 10 second limit for how long White Knight may stop.

White Knight is completely on its own and makes all its own decisions about how to drive. If a route that the vehicle has chosen to take to get to its next way-point is blocked, the computer system will replan its path using the remaining available routes. Team members and other spectators can only watch as the cars work their way through the course while in Auto-Drive mode.  



Of course every robot needs to have a head.   White Knight has had several.  Here is one in their press photo, and a different head, with eyes, is shown being used in their video . 



And what makes experimental vehicles possible?  Sponsors do.  White Knight has over a dozen major sponsors and their logos appear on the glass of the vehicles windows.  This team seems to have figured out how to get the support they need.



GO ROBOTS !

Posted by Paul Grayson on September 17, 2007 | Comments (0)