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Second Annual DARPA Grand Challenge
This Saturday, twenty-three autonomous vehicles built by engineering teams from around the country will attempt the second annual DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race. All-terrain vehicles suped up with computerized mechanical controls, GPS systems, cameras, lasers, and other navigational equipment will attempt to independently complete an approximately 150-mile course through the Mojave Desert of southern Nevada. These vehicles will have to negotiate berms, standing water, narrow underpasses, barbed wire fences, power line towers, and other obstacles along their way. The first vehicle to complete the course within the 10-hour time limit will win a $2 million cash prize from the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense. DARPA is sponsoring this race in an effort to promote innovative technical approaches that will enable the autonomous operation of unmanned ground combat vehicles.
In the inaugural DARPA Grand Challenge race last year, no vehicles even came close to completing the course and winning last year's $1 million prize. The best team made it just seven miles. This year, however, the vehicles have improved dramatically and hopes are high that one team will claim the $2 million prize. Either way, DARPA officials will consider the event a success for the interest and innovations captured in the development of the competing vehicles.
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Stanley takes home the $2M
It looks like Stanley won it, completing the course without human assistance in under seven hours. Five other teams also completed the trek, four of them within the ten hour time limit. In fact, 21 of the 23 teams entered in the race did better than the first place finisher last year.
So much progress was made that DARPA said it won't have a similar even it 2006. Tony Tether, the agency's director, said, "We have completed our mission here and look forward to watching these exciting technologies take off."
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Stanley - 'Brilliant' Favorite by mwhite :: NR5 :: Show
Looks like Stanford Racing Team's 'Stanley' is the current favorite. This vehicle finished the National Qualification Event 'brilliantly' and in first place. The NQE, held at the California Speedway, is essentially the semi-final to the Grand Challenge. Stanley finished the test run in just over 10 minutes by smoothly negotiating all of the obstacles on the course without missing a single gate.