Darpa Grand Challenge

The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless cars, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research organization of the United States Department of Defense. Congress has authorized DARPA to award cash prizes to further DARPA’s mission to sponsor revolutionary, high-payoff research that bridges the gap between fundamental discoveries and their use for national security. DARPA has technologies needed to create the first fully autonomous ground vehicles capable of completing a substantial off-road course within a limited time. The third event, The DARPA Urban Challenge, which took place on November 3, 2007 and was broadcast via webcast^[1], further advanced vehicle requirements to include autonomous operation in a mock urban environment. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1195x985, 614 KB) Summary Image of Autonomous Robot From Second Grand Challenge Advancing to Urban Challenge. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1195x985, 614 KB) Summary Image of Autonomous Robot From Second Grand Challenge Advancing to Urban Challenge. ... The driverless car is an emerging family of technologies, ultimately aimed at a full taxi-like experience for car users, but without a driver. ... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate President pro tempore Dick Cheney, (R) since January 20, 2001 Robert C. Byrd, (D) since January 4, 2007 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, (D) since January 4, 2007 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political... The driverless car is an emerging family of technologies, ultimately aimed at a full taxi-like experience for car users, but without a driver. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

History and Background

See also: Driverless car

The history of autonomous vehicles starts in 1977 with the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Lab in Japan. On a dedicated, clearly marked course it achieved speeds of up to 30 km/h (20 miles per hour), by tracking white street markers (special hardware was necessary, since commercial computers were much slower than they are today). The driverless car is an emerging family of technologies, ultimately aimed at a full taxi-like experience for car users, but without a driver. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Tsukuba (Japanese: つくば市; -shi; from Han character 筑波) is a planned city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. ... Mechanical Engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the application of principles of physics for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. ... A kilometer (Commonwealth spelling: kilometre), symbol: km is a unit of length in the metric system equal to 1,000 metres (from the Greek words χίλια (khilia) = thousand and μέτρο (metro) = count/measure). ... Miles per hour is a unit of speed, expressing the number of international miles covered per hour. ...

The breakthrough in autonomous driving came in the 1980s through the work of Ernst Dickmanns and his team at Bundeswehr Universität München and work funded by DARPA as the Autonomous Land Vehicle. Dickmann's vision-guided Mercedes-Benz robot van achieved 60 miles per hour on streets without traffic. The subsequent 800 million Euro EUREKA Prometheus Project on autonomous vehicles (1987-1995) brought further progress. A first culmination point was achieved in 1994, when the twin robot vehicles VaMP and Vita-2 of Daimler-Benz and Ernst Dickmanns of UniBwM drove more than one thousand kilometers on a Paris three-lane highway in standard heavy traffic at speeds up to 130 km/h, albeit semi-autonomous with human interventions. They demonstrated autonomous driving in free lanes, convoy driving, and lane changes left and right with autonomous passing of other cars. The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... Ernst Dieter Dickmanns (born 1936), a former professor at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in Munich (1975 - 2001), is the pioneer of dynamic machine vision and of Driverless cars. ... This page is about the Mercedes-Benz brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler automobile manufacturer. ... For other uses, see Euro (disambiguation). ... The EUREKA Prometheus Project (1987-1995) was the largest R&D project ever in the field of driverless cars. ... Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) The year 1994 was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by the United Nations. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... Daimler-Benz AG was founded on May 1, 1924 by the merger of Benz & Cie. ... Ernst Dieter Dickmanns (born 1936), a former professor at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in Munich (1975 - 2001), is the pioneer of dynamic machine vision and of Driverless cars. ...

Also in the 1980s the Autonomous Land Vehicle (ALV) achieved the first road following demonstration that used laser radar (Environmental Research Institute of Michigan), computer vision (Carnegie Mellon University and SRI), and autonomous robotic control (Carnegie Mellon and Martin Marietta) to control a driverless vehicle up to 30km/h. The 1980s refers to the years from 1980 to 1989. ... A FASOR used at the Starfire Optical Range for LIDAR and laser guide star experiments is tuned to the sodium D2a line and used to excite sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere. ... // Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) Formed in 1972, ERIM was established as a private not for profit research institute when Willow Run Laboratories formally separated from the University of Michigan [1]. ERIM contributed to the development of remote sensing for environmental and military applications. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ...

The next culmination point was achieved in 1995, when Dickmanns´ re-engineered autonomous S-Class Mercedes-Benz took a 1600 km trip from Munich in Bavaria to Copenhagen in Denmark and back, using saccadic computer vision and transputers to react in real time. The robot achieved speeds exceeding 175 km/h on the German Autobahn, with a mean time between human interventions of 9km, or 95% autonomous driving. Again it drove in traffic, executing manoeuvres to pass other cars. Despite being a research system without emphasis on long distance reliability, it drove up to 158 km without human intervention. The United States S-class submarines, often simply called the S-boats, were the first class of submarines built to a United States Navy design. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Copenhagen (disambiguation). ... A saccade is a fast movement of an eye, head or other part of an animals body or device. ... The INMOS Transputer was a pioneering parallel computing microprocessor design of the 1980s from INMOS, a small English company. ... This article is about the German, Austrian and Swiss road system. ...

Successor technology from that begun for the ALV, in 1995, the CMU Navlab project achieved 98.2% autonomous driving on a 5000 km (3000-mile) "No hands across America" trip. This car, however, was semi-autonomous by nature: it used neural networks to control the steering wheel, but throttle and brakes were human-controlled. Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ...

Another milestone of vehicular robotics is the well known ARGO Project, an Italian project (1996-2001) to allow a car to follow the normal (painted) lane marks in an unmodified highway. The culmination of the project was a journey of 2,000 km over six days on the motorways of northern Italy dubbed MilleMiglia in Automatico, with an average speed of 90 km/h. 94% of the time the car was in fully automatic mode, with the longest automatic stretch being 54 km. The ARGO vehicle, a modified Lancia Thema, had only two black-and-white low-cost video cameras on board, and used stereoscopic vision algorithms to understand its environment. This is in stark contrast to the "laser, radar - whatever you need" approach taken by other efforts in the field. The project was run by the university of Parma, coordinated by Prof. Alberto Broggi, Director of the well known VisLab Laboratory. UK-spec Lancia Thema IE Turbo 1990 Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lancia Thema The Lancia Thema is an executive car produced by the Italian automaker Lancia between 1985 and 1994, and was one of four cars to share the Type Four chassis alongside the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat... Video cameras are used primarily in two modes. ... Stereo card image modified for crossed eye viewing. ...

The abilities of these early vehicles heavily influenced research world-wide, including three US Government efforts known as Demo I (US Army), Demo II (DARPA), Demo III (US Army). Demo III (2001) demonstrated the ability of unmanned ground vehicles to navigate miles of difficult off-road terrain, avoiding obstacles such as rocks and trees. The government of the United States, established by the United States Constitution, is a federal republic of 50 states, a few territories and some protectorates. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ...

The Grand Challenge was the first long distance competition for robot cars in the World; to date, there have been other competitions for semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles, but none on the scale of the Grand Challenge. The U.S. Congress authorized DARPA to offer prize money ($1 million) for the first Grand Challenge to facilitate robotic development, with the ultimate goal of making one-third of ground military forces autonomous by 2015. Following the 2004 event, Dr. Tony Tether, the director of DARPA, announced that the prize money had been increased to US$2 million for the next event, which was claimed on October 9, 2005. The first, second and third places in the 2007 Urban Challenge will receive US$2 million, US$1 million, and US$500,000, respectively. For the video game developer, see 2015, Inc. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. Anthony J. Tether was appointed as Director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on June 18, 2001. ... $ redirects here. ... is the 282nd day of the year (283rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The competition is open to teams and organizations from around the world, with the proviso that they have at least one U.S. citizen on the roster. Teams have participated from high schools, universities, businesses and other organizations. More than 100 teams registered in the first year, bringing a wide variety of technological skills to the race. In the second year, 195 teams from 36 US states and 4 foreign countries entered the race. A U.S. state is any one of the 50 states which have membership of the federation known as the United States of America (USA or U.S.). The separate state governments and the U.S. federal government share sovereignty. ...

2004 Grand Challenge

Red Team Racing's 1986 HMMWV Sandstorm

The 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge was held in the Mojave Desert region of the United States, along a 150-mile route that follows along the path of Interstate 15 from just before Barstow, California to just past the California-Nevada border in Primm. None of the robot vehicles finished the route. Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team traveled the farthest distance, completing 11.78 km (7.36 miles) of the course. The distance may be misleading in measuring the accomplishment, however, as some of the most difficult terrain was located at the start of the course. From the DARPA Grand Challenge, Red Team Racings Hummer - Picture by Rupert Scammell and released under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-ShareAlike 1. ... From the DARPA Grand Challenge, Red Team Racings Hummer - Picture by Rupert Scammell and released under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-ShareAlike 1. ... Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... For the indigenous American tribe, see Mohave. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Interstate 15 “I-15” redirects here. ... Barstow is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article is about the U.S. State of Nevada. ... I-15 and Whiskey Petes casino, Primm, NV Primm (often called Primm Valley, after one of its casinos) is a tiny community of Clark County, Nevada, primarily notable for its position straddling Interstate 15 where it crosses the border between California and Nevada. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ...

Preliminary tests

Prior to the main event in the Mojave Desert, the teams were required to navigate a mile-long obstacle course at California Speedway. Three teams were able to successfully complete the entire course, while three more almost completed it and another half dozen teams completed a portion of the course. After it became clear that the challenge may be over before it even began (with the high failure rate as the teams worked the kinks out of their vehicles), DARPA decided to scrap the initial tests and allow fifteen of the teams to run the race anyway, in the hopes that the many mechanical problems experienced by the teams would be sorted out prior to the main event. For the indigenous American tribe, see Mohave. ... The California Speedway is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California, similar to that of sister track Michigan International Speedway. ...

The event

Unfortunately, the failures of the vehicles during the preliminary tests were indicative of how the vehicles would perform on the actual course. Only three hours into the event, a mere four vehicles remained operational. The vehicles that failed suffered from a variety of mechanical problems: "stuck brakes, broken axles, rollovers, and malfunctioning satellite navigation equipment."

Within a few hours, all of the vehicles in the challenge had suffered critical vehicle failures, had been disqualified, or had withdrawn. The furthest any of the teams had gotten was the Red Team's 7.4 miles, less than 5% off the full length of the course (the vehicle (Sandstorm) went off-course in the tightest hairpin turn and got stuck on the embankment). The next furthest vehicles were those of the SciAutonics II Team, which traversed 6.7 miles before becoming stuck on an embankment; Digital Auto Drive, which drove 6.0 miles before getting stuck on a rock; and the Golem Group, which made it 5.2 miles before getting trapped on a steep hill. Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ...

The results

Team ENSCO's vehicle, DAVID

Although the initial race was deemed a failure due to no vehicles even achieving anything close to the goal, DARPA had committed to running the challenge again for as long as Congressional authority allowed (which would have run to 2007, but the goal was reached in 2005). From the DARPA Grand Challenge, Team Enscos vehicle - Picture by Rupert Scammell and released under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-ShareAlike 1. ... From the DARPA Grand Challenge, Team Enscos vehicle - Picture by Rupert Scammell and released under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-ShareAlike 1. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The first Grand Challenge is considered by some to be a success in any event, merely on the basis that it has spurred interest and innovation. The requisite logic dictates that, as long as overall forward progress is being made, the program is a success.

In addition to the difficulty many vehicles had with the harsh terrain, a critical problem many initial designs had concerned the inability to handle two distinct problems simultaneously: sensing upcoming obstacles and following the GPS waypoints. DARPA Grand Challenge deputy program manager Tom Strat said, "some of the vehicles were able to follow the GPS waypoints very accurately; but were not able to sense obstacles ahead....Other vehicles were very good at sensing obstacles, but had difficulty following waypoints or were scared of their own shadow, hallucinating obstacles when they weren't there."

Several teams announced plans to return again in the years to come, taking the lessons that they learned from the 2004 event and applying them to future designs.

2005 Grand Challenge

Stanley, the winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge

The 2005 Grand Challenge began at 6:40am on October 8, 2005. This time "Stanley", the robotic Volkswagen Touareg of "The Stanford Racing Team", beat the field—completing the 212.4 km (132-mile) race with a winning time of 6 hours 53 minutes and 58 seconds. Four other vehicles successfully completed the race. All but one of the 23 finalists in the 2005 race surpassed the 11.78 km (7.36 mile) distance completed by the best vehicle in the 2004 race. ImageMetadata File history File links Stanleyrobot. ... ImageMetadata File history File links Stanleyrobot. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 281st day of the year (282nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... The Volkswagen Touareg is a mid-size luxury SUV produced by German automaker Volkswagen since 2003. ... Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... A minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds. ... This article is about the unit of time. ...

Vehicles in the 2005 race passed through three narrow tunnels, included more than 100 sharp left and right turns. The race concluded through Beer Bottle Pass, a winding mountain pass with sheer drop-offs on both sides. Although the 2004 course required more elevation gain and some very sharp switchbacks (Daggett Ridge) were required near the beginning of the route, the course had far fewer curves and generally wider roads than the 2005 course.

The natural rivalry between the teams from Stanford and Carnegie Mellon (Sebastian Thrun, head of the Stanford team was previously a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon and colleague of Red Whittaker, head of the CMU team) was played out during the race. Mechanical problems plagued H1ghlander before it was passed by Stanley. Gray Team’s entry was a miracle in itself, as the team from the suburbs of New Orleans was caught in Hurricane Katrina a few short months before the race. The fourth finisher, Terramax, a 30,000 pound entry from Oshkosh Truck, finished on the second day. The huge truck spent the night idling on the course, and was particularly nimble in carefully picking its way down the narrow roads of Beer Bottle Pass. Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... Sebastian Thrun, (born 1967 in Solingen, Germany) is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL). ... William L. Red Whittaker is a roboticist and professor of robotics. ... This article is about the Atlantic hurricane of 2005. ...

National Qualification Event (NQE)

Of the original 195 applicants, initially 40 teams were selected to participate in the National Qualification Event (NQE). Three teams were added on Aug. 23, 2005 to the semi-finalist 40 teams who were selected from site visits, sending 43 teams to the NQE.

The National Qualification Event was held at California Speedway in Fontana from September 27 through October 5. The results of the NQE were used to cut the 43 teams down to 23 for the race on October 8. The California Speedway is a two-mile, low-banked, D-shaped oval superspeedway in Fontana, California, similar to that of sister track Michigan International Speedway. ... Location of Fontana in California Coordinates: , Country State County San Bernardino Incorporated (city) 1952-06-25 [2] Government  - Mayor Mark Nuaimi [1] Area  - City  36. ... is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses, see 5th October (Serbia). ...

Vehicle performances at the NQE were judged by (1) elapsed time to complete the course; (2) number of obstacles successfully passed without contact; (3) number of gates successfully passed. DARPA did not reveal the relative importance of these three factors. DARPA's final ranking of the vehicles, for purposes of pole position in the Grand Challenge Event (GCE), may have been partly subjective.

The results of the 2005 DARPA NQEs are shown below sorted top to bottom by runs completed and gates passed, compiled from DARPA's published NQE results. This ordering does not correspond to DARPA's ranking of team performance. (For example, this ordering does not reflect speed as an element of performance.) Teams highlighted in green were the teams that DARPA selected to participate in the Grand Challenge desert race.

There were four NQE runs. The above four major columns are sorted from worst to best runs of each team. "Time" signifies the time in minutes for a completed run and "x" indicates an incomplete run. "Gates" indicates the number of gates along the track that were passed (there were 50 total per run). "Obstacles" indicates the number of obstacles on the track that were passed (there were 5 total per run). "Finishes" indicates the total number of runs that the team successfully completed (there were 4 runs total). "Total Gates" indicates the total number of gates that the team successfully passed. The teams are sorted from top to bottom according to runs completed and then by total gates passed. Teams indicated as a "desert race participant" are those teams invited by DARPA to participate in the Grand Challenge desert race. Source data

For the first and second run, only 4 obstacles were present whereas for the third and fourth runs 5 obstacles were present. The NQE results presented in the table above show each team's runs sorted left to right from their worst run to their best run in order to better illustrate relative ranking (i.e. not in order of the actual run sequence).

On October 6, the selected teams transported their robots to the starting location. On October 7 the teams had a day to fix any portions of the robots broken in the course of transportation prior to the actual race.

Race

A Google Talk video about the DARPA 2005 race is available at Google Video

The route to be followed by the robots was supplied to the teams two hours before the start as a computer file with GPS coordinates, one every 72 m (237 feet) of the route, with more frequent waypoints in difficult patches. Some teams then went against the spirit of the competition by using topographic maps and aerial imagery to manually map out and program precise path and speed settings (CMU's Red Team employed 13 route editors.) Once the race had started, the robots were not allowed to contact humans in any way. Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ...

Each robot started at a different time and was "paused" for different amounts of time during the race; DARPA compensated for the staggered start times and subtracted the pause time from each robot's total to derive its final official time. The $2 million prize was awarded on Sunday, October 9, 2005.

The 2005 competitors were much more successful than those of 2004; only one failed to pass the 11.84 km (7.36 mile) mark set by the best-performing 2004 entry, Sandstorm. By the end, 18 robots had been disabled and five robots finished the course. On the first day, Stanley from Stanford University, and H1ghlander and Sandstorm from Carnegie Mellon University, finished within minutes of each other, with Stanley crossing the finish line first. Kat-5 from Gray Team started much later, but finished in a comparable time. The race paused overnight with one competitor, TerraMax, left on the course at mile 83; TerraMax had the stage to itself on Sunday as it belatedly rumbled home. Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... “Stanford” redirects here. ... H1ghlander during the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ... Kat-5 is an autonomous vehicle created by Team Gray, an organization comprised of employees from The Gray Insurance Company and students from Tulane Universitys School of Engineering, for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ...

The winner of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge was Stanley, with a course time of 6 hours 53 minutes and 8 seconds (6:53:08) with average speed of 30.7 km/h (19.1 mph). CMU's Sandstorm followed with 7:04:50 at 29.9 km/h (18.6 mph) and H1ghlander at 7:14:00 at 29.3 km/h (18.2 mph). Gray Team's Kat-5 came through at 7:30:16 with average speed of 28.2 km/h (17.5 mph). Oshkosh Truck's Terramax finished at 12:51 and would not have been eligible for the prize because it exceeded the ten-hour limit.

The Official Website (requires Flash player plugin) contained a map and positions of the competitors, while TG Daily posted a running summary of the day's events.

Race Participants

DNF = Did Not Finish Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... “Stanford” redirects here. ... Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto[1] Area  - City 25. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ... Pittsburgh redirects here. ... Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... H1ghlander during the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Kat-5 is an autonomous vehicle created by Team Gray, an organization comprised of employees from The Gray Insurance Company and students from Tulane Universitys School of Engineering, for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... , Metairie (local pronunciations , ) is a suburb of New Orleans. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... TerraMax is an autonomous tactical cargo hauler created by Oshkosh Truck Corporations Big Truck Robotics that participated in both the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Location of Oshkosh, Wisconsin City hall Downtown Oshkosh at U.S. Route 45 Oshkosh Public Museum Mouth of the Fox River into Lake Winnebago. ... Official language(s) None Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Area  Ranked 23rd  - Total 65,498 sq mi (169,790 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 310 miles (500 km)  - % water 17  - Latitude 42° 30′ N to 47° 05′ N  - Longitude 86° 46′ W to 92° 53′ W Population  Ranked... Springfield is an unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Location of Westlake Village in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1981-12-11 [2] Government  - Mayor Susan McSweeney [1] Area  - City  5. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech, is a public land grant polytechnic university in Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S. Although it is a comprehensive university with many departments, the agriculture, engineering, architecture, forestry, and veterinary medicine programs from its historical polytechnic core are still considered to... Blacksburgs location within Virgina Virginias location within the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Montgomery Founded 1798 Government  - Mayor Ron Rordam Area  - Town  19. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... The Ohio State University (OSU) is a coeducational public research university in the state of Ohio. ... Nickname: Location in the state of Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country State Counties Franklin, Delaware, and Fairfield Government  - Mayor Michael B. Coleman (D) Area  - City  212. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Greater Cleveland Area  Ranked 34th  - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 km²)  - Width 220 miles (355 km)  - Length 220 miles (355 km)  - % water 8. ... Morgan Hill (IPA: ) is a city located in the southern part of Santa Clara County, California, USA. Founded on November 10, 1906, the city was named after Hiram Morgan Hill, a San Franciscan who built a country retreat home here in 1884. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... North Carolina State University is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. ... For other uses of this name, see Raleigh. ... Official language(s) English Capital Raleigh Largest city Charlotte Largest metro area Charlotte metro area Area  Ranked 28th  - Total 53,865 sq mi (139,509 km²)  - Width 150 miles (240 km)  - Length 560[1] miles (901 km)  - % water 9. ... Mt. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Largest metro area Denver-Aurora Metro Area Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... Los Angeles and L.A. redirect here. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... At present, no single institution exists with the specific, official name of the University of Louisiana. ... : Hub City : The Heart of Cajun Country United States Louisiana Lafayette 47. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ... Location in Ventura County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Ventura Settled 1875 Incorporated September 29, 1964 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Andrew P. Fox  - City manager Scott Mitnick Area [1]  - City  55. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Wikinews has related news: Interview with U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo The City of Littleton is a home rule municipality located in the Denver Metropolitan Area of the State of Colorado. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Largest metro area Denver-Aurora Metro Area Area  Ranked 8th  - Total 104,185 sq mi (269,837 km²)  - Width 280 miles (451 km)  - Length 380 miles (612 km)  - % water 0. ... The University of Florida (Florida, UFL, or UF) is a public land-grant, space-grant, research university located in Gainesville, Florida. ... Location in Alachua County and the state of Florida Coordinates: , Country State County Alachua Incorporated (city) 15 April 1869 Government  - Type Council-manager  - Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan  - City Manager Russ Blackburn Area [1]  - City  49. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami metropolitan area Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ... Princeton University is a private coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. ... Nassau Street, Princetons main street. ... “NJ” redirects here. ... Cornell redirects here. ... The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca) sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York State. ... This article is about the state. ... The California Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Caltech)[1] is a private, coeducational research university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... Cedar Park is a city located in Williamson County Texas. ... Official language(s) No official language See languages of Texas Capital Austin Largest city Houston Largest metro area Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington Area  Ranked 2nd  - Total 261,797 sq mi (678,051 km²)  - Width 773 miles (1,244 km)  - Length 790 miles (1,270 km)  - % water 2. ... This article is about the ceremonial head-dress; see also mitre (disambiguation). ... Boundaries of the McLean CDP as of 2003. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ...

A vehicle being developed for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1100x1000, 328 KB) I took this picture and release it to the public domain I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1100x1000, 328 KB) I took this picture and release it to the public domain I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...

2007 Urban Challenge

For 2007, DARPA introduced a new challenge, which it named the "Urban Challenge". The Urban Challenge took place on November 3, 2007 at the site of the now-closed George Air Force Base (currently used as Southern California Logistics Airport), in Victorville, California (Google map).^[3] Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... George Air Force Base (now known as Southern California Logistics Airport, or Victorville Airport) was an airport in southern California. ... Southern California Logistics Airport (IATA: VCV, ICAO: KVCV), also known as Victorville Airport, is a public airport located in the city of Victorville in San Bernardino County, California, USA. It is located on the former site of George Air Force Base. ... Victorville is a city located in San Bernardino County, California. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

Starting Area: 34.5846° N 117.369° W^[4]

The $2 million winner was Tartan Racing, a collaborative effort by Carnegie Mellon University and General Motors Corporation, with their vehicle "Boss", a Chevy Tahoe. The second place finisher earning the $1 million prize was the Stanford Racing Team with their entry "Junior", a 2006 Volkswagen Passat. Coming in third place was team Victor Tango from Virginia Tech winning the $500,000 prize with their 2005 Ford Escape hybrid, "Odin".^[5]

The course involved a 96 km (60-mile) urban area course, to be completed in less than 6 hours. Rules included obeying all traffic regulations while negotiating with other traffic and obstacles and merging into traffic. While the 2004 and 2005 events were more physically challenging for the vehicles, the robots operated in isolation and did not encounter other vehicles on the course. The Urban Challenge required designers to build vehicles able to obey all traffic laws while they detect and avoid other robots on the course. This is a particular challenge for vehicle software, as vehicles must make "intelligent" decisions in real time based on the actions of other vehicles. Other than previous autonomous vehicle efforts that focused on structured situations such as highway driving with little interaction between the vehicles, this competition operated in a more cluttered urban environment and required the cars to perform sophisticated interactions with each other, such as maintaining precedence at a 4-way stop intersection. ^[6] “km” redirects here. ... “Miles” redirects here. ... Cities with at least a million inhabitants in 2006 An urban area is an area with an increased density of human-created structures in comparison to the areas surrounding it. ... The hour (symbol: h) is a unit of time. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Trikke is a Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) Automobiles are among the most commonly used engine powered vehicles. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...

The event is being followed closely by auto manufacturers for the implications it holds for smarter cars and safer highways in the future. ^{[citation needed]}

Unlike the past two challenges, DARPA announced that some teams were to receive development funding, based on proposals submitted to DARPA. Eleven teams could receive up to US$1 million a piece under this special program track (Track A) [1]. These 11 teams largely represent major universities and large corporate interests such as CMU teaming with GM, Stanford teaming with Volkswagen, Virginia Tech teaming with TORC Technologies, Oshkosh Truck, Honeywell, Raytheon, Caltech, Autonomous Solutions, Cornell, and MIT. One of the few independent entries in Track A is the Golem Group. Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... General Motors Corporation, also known as GM or The General, an American multinational conglomerate corporation, is the worlds largest auto company by annual production volume for 2006, and the second largest by sales volume as of the first half of 2007, behind Toyota Motor Corporation. ... Stanford may refer: Stanford University Places: Stanford, Kentucky Stanford, California, home of Stanford University Stanford Shopping Center Stanford, New York, town in Dutchess County. ... Volkswagen AG (ISIN: DE0007664005), or VW, is an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. ... This article or section should include material from Virginia Bioinformatics Institute. ... Honeywell Heating Specialties Company Stock Certificate dated 1924 signed by Mark C. Honeywell - courtesy of Scripophily. ... Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN) is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in defense systems and defense and commercial electronics. ... California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (commonly known as Caltech) is a private, coeducational university located in Pasadena, California, in the United States. ... Cornell is the name of some places in the United States of America. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ...

June/July 2007 53 teams (see list below) were notified that they qualified for DARPA Site visits. Those teams that were successful in these evaluations moved on to a national qualifying event that took place in October 2007. For other uses, see June (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ...

On August 9, 2007, after completing the site visits, DARPA announced^[7] the 36 semi-finalists selected to participate in the Urban Challenge National Qualification Event (NQE) that took place October 26-31, 2007. Originally, the top 20 teams from that event were scheduled to proceed to the final competition on November 3, however only 11 teams were selected. The 36 semifinalists were: is the 221st day of the year (222nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 299th day of the year (300th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Travis County. ... Bethesda is an urbanized, but unincorporated, area in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a church located there, the Bethesda Presbyterian Church, built in 1820 and rebuilt in 1850, which in turn took its name from Jerusalems Pool of Bethesda. ... Location of Westlake Village in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country United States of America State California County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1981-12-11 [2] Government  - Mayor Susan McSweeney [1] Area  - City  5. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... Location in Alachua County and the state of Florida Coordinates: , Country State County Alachua Incorporated (city) 15 April 1869 Government  - Type Council-manager  - Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan  - City Manager Russ Blackburn Area [1]  - City  49. ... For other uses, see Santa Monica (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Location in Michigan Coordinates: , Country United States State Michigan County Wayne County Government  - Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ... Mt. ... For the band, see Kokomo (band). ... Nickname: Location in the state of Ohio, USA Coordinates: , Country State Counties Franklin, Delaware, and Fairfield Government  - Mayor Michael B. Coleman (D) Area  - City  212. ... Nassau Street, Princetons main street. ... Location in Ventura County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Ventura Settled 1875 Incorporated September 29, 1964 Government  - Type Council-Manager  - Mayor Andrew P. Fox  - City manager Scott Mitnick Area [1]  - City  55. ... Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Santa Clara County, California. ... Atlanta redirects here. ... Pittsburgh redirects here. ... Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto[1] Area  - City 25. ... Petersboro is a census-designated place (CDP) in Cache County, Utah, United States. ... Houston redirects here. ... : Hub City : The Heart of Cajun Country United States Louisiana Lafayette 47. ... Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ... Cleveland redirects here. ... The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca) sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York State. ... Ann Arbor redirects here. ... , Metairie (local pronunciations , ) is a suburb of New Orleans. ... Crozet is a census-designated place located in Albemarle County, Virginia. ... A view of the Wasatch Mountains from a Sandy neighborhood. ... Woodstock, Maryland is an unincorporated community which is a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland. ... Location of Oshkosh, Wisconsin City hall Downtown Oshkosh at U.S. Route 45 Oshkosh Public Museum Mouth of the Fox River into Lake Winnebago. ... Nickname: Location in Orange County and the state of Florida Coordinates: , Country State Counties Orange Government  - Mayor Buddy Dyer (D) Area  - City 101 sq mi (261. ... Wikinews has related news: Interview with U.S. Republican Presidential candidate Tom Tancredo The City of Littleton is a home rule municipality located in the Denver Metropolitan Area of the State of Colorado. ... Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. ... Location in Maryland. ... Blacksburgs location within Virgina Virginias location within the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Montgomery Founded 1798 Government  - Mayor Ron Rordam Area  - Town  19. ...

National Qualification Event

Diagram of qualification area A

The National Qualification Event for the 2007 challenge occurred between October 26th and 31st, 2007. 35 teams were selected to participate in this semifinal round. The qualifying rounds included 3 areas: A, B, and C. Area A was a test of the robots' ability to merge. A 2-way loop of human traffic (provided by professional stunt drivers) surrounded a one-way road running from one side of the loop to the other. Robots had to go from the one-way road, make a left turn into traffic, follow the loop 180 degrees, and make another left turn onto the one-way road again. If a robot ever made a move considered unsafe by the drivers, they would honk. Robots were free to make as many laps as they could in the allotted time. Area B was mostly closed to spectators except for the start and finish, and involved the robots navigating a long suburban route demonstrating parking, navigation, and avoiding stalled cars along the way. In Area C, robots performed several loops into a 4-way intersection in order to test their implementation of 4-way stops. Each loop, human drivers would provide a progressively more difficult intersection situation. At some points in Area C, roads would be blocked to test robots' ability to re-plan routes. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...

On October 30, 2007, 6 teams were eliminated from the NQE by DARPA for poor performance to free up test slots for the remaining 29 teams. These teams were Georgia Tech/SAIC Sting Racing, Ody-Era, SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering, Team Berlin, University of Utah and Princeton University.^[8]. is the 303rd day of the year (304th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ...

On October 31, 2007, 8 more teams were eliminated from the NQE. The teams eliminated were Caltech, Mojavaton, Team Jefferson, Team Urbanator, Gator Nation, Team Juggernaut, Axion Racing and Golem Group. ^[9] is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On November 1, 2007 it was announced that there would be only 11 teams competing in the Urban Challenge. ^[10][11] The 11 teams selected to compete are the following: is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

1. AnnieWay
2. Ben Franklin
3. CarOLO
4. Cornell
5. Intelligent Vehicle Systems
6. MIT
7. Stanford Racing
8. Tartan Racing
9. Team Oshkosh
10. Team UCF
11. Victor Tango

DARPA's reasoning for only qualifying 11 teams was primarily safety-related. DARPA felt that since there would be real humans near the robots in the traffic cars as well as DARPA officials scoring robot performance, then safety was paramount.^[12].

Finals

The final event for the Darpa Urban Challenge took place on November 3, 2007, and included all 11 teams which made it past the semi-final National Qualification Event. The event was broadcast on a live webcast via the DARPA Urban Challenge website, narrated by Marty Reid (racing sportscaster) and Grant Imahara (of Mythbusters acclaim), with "sideline reporting" by Jamie Hyneman (also of Mythbusters). ^[13] is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Grant Imahara (born October 23, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) is a Japanese-American electronics and radio control expert who is well-known for his work as a Build Team member on the American television show MythBusters. ... MythBusters is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel starring special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors and urban legends in popular culture. ... James Earl Hyneman (born September 25, 1956), known as Jamie Hyneman, is an American visual effects expert, best known for being the co-host of the television series MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. ...

Three autonomous vehicle teams finished the event under the six hour time limit; Stanford University's VW Passat named Junior, Carnegie Mellon's Chevy Tahoe named Boss, and Virginia Tech's Ford Escape hybrid named Odin. On November 4, CMU's Boss was named the winner, followed by Stanford's Junior, then Virginia Tech's Odin.

Three others completed the challenge outside the six hour limit, Ben Franklin Racing's Ben, MIT's Talos, and Cornell's Skynet in that order.

Race Participants

DNF = Did Not Finish Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. ... Pittsburgh redirects here. ... Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... Miles per hour is a unit of speed, expressing the number of international miles covered per hour. ... “Stanford” redirects here. ... Location in Santa Clara County and the state of California Coordinates: , Country State County Santa Clara Government  - Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto[1] Area  - City 25. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, better known as Virginia Tech (also formerly known as VPI), is a public land grant polytechnic university in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA. Its strengths are in agriculture, engineering, architecture, forestry, and veterinary medicine programs. ... Blacksburgs location within Virgina Virginias location within the United States Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Montgomery Founded 1798 Government  - Mayor Ron Rordam Area  - Town  19. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... This article is about the private Ivy League university in Philadelphia. ... Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. ... Nickname: City of Brotherly Love, Philly, the Quaker City Motto: Philadelphia maneto (Let brotherly love continue) Location in Pennsylvania Coordinates: Country United States State Pennsylvania County Philadelphia Founded October 27, 1682 Incorporated October 25, 1701 Mayor John F. Street (D) Area    - City 369. ... Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Area  Ranked 33rd  - Total 46,055 sq mi (119,283 km²)  - Width 280 miles (455 km)  - Length 160 miles (255 km)  - % water 2. ... Cornell redirects here. ... The City of Ithaca (named for the Greek island of Ithaca) sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York State. ... This article is about the state. ... Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ... Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: , Country United States State Massachusetts County Middlesex County Settled 1630 Incorporated 1636 Government  - Type Mayor-council city  - Mayor Kenneth Reeves (D) Area  - City  7. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... Braunschweig may also refer to the administrative region of Germany. ... UCF redirects here. ... Nickname: Location in Orange County and the state of Florida Coordinates: , Country State Counties Orange Government  - Mayor Buddy Dyer (D) Area  - City 101 sq mi (261. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami metropolitan area Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ... Location of Oshkosh, Wisconsin City hall Downtown Oshkosh at U.S. Route 45 Oshkosh Public Museum Mouth of the Fox River into Lake Winnebago. ... Official language(s) None Capital Madison Largest city Milwaukee Area  Ranked 23rd  - Total 65,498 sq mi (169,790 km²)  - Width 260 miles (420 km)  - Length 310 miles (500 km)  - % water 17  - Latitude 42° 30′ N to 47° 05′ N  - Longitude 86° 46′ W to 92° 53′ W Population  Ranked... Troy is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. ... Location in Michigan Coordinates: , Country United States State Michigan County Wayne County Government  - Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr. ... “Minneapolis” redirects here. ... Karlsruhe (population 283,959 in 2005) is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border. ...

Basic Rules for 2007

• Vehicle must be stock or have a documented safety record.
• Vehicle must obey the California state driving laws.
• Vehicle must be entirely autonomous, using only the information it detects with its sensors and public signals such as GPS.
• DARPA will provide the route network 24 hours before the race starts.
• Vehicles will complete the route by driving between specified checkpoints.
• DARPA will provide a file detailing the order the checkpoints must be driven to 5 minutes before the race start.
• Vehicles may “stop and stare” for at most 10 seconds.
• Vehicles must operate in rain and fog, with GPS blocked.
• Vehicles must avoid collision with vehicles and other objects such as carts, bicycles, traffic barrels, and objects in the environment such as utility poles.
• Vehicles must be able to operate in parking areas and perform U-turns as required by the situation.

Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... This article is about precipitation. ... For other uses, see Fog (disambiguation). ...

Technology

For reference, see DARPA Urban Challenge, a C++ based platform for testing Path Planning Algorithms: An application of Game Theory and Neural Networks.^[22]

2007 Urban Challenge teams employed a variety of different software and hardware combinations for interpreting sensor data, planning, and execution. Some examples:

• Cornell's code is written in C++ and C# and runs on Windows hosts. Planning involves Bayesian mathematics.
• Insight Racing is using Mac Minis running Linux because they can run on DC power at relatively low wattage and produce less heat.
• Team Case is using Mac Minis running Windows.
• Team LUX is running an embedded version of Windows XP.
• Sting Racing's software is written in Java running on Linux.
• VictorTango's software is written in LabVIEW and is split between Windows and Linux servers.

Bayesian refers to probability and statistics -- either methods associated with the Reverend Thomas Bayes (ca. ... LabVIEW (short for Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench) is a platform and development environment for a visual programming language from National Instruments. ...

Critiques of the Grand Challenge

VaMP (1995) compared to Stanley, Sandstorm, H1ghlander, TerraMax, and Kat-5 (2005)

Five cars finished the course of the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge: Stanley, Sandstorm, H1ghlander, TerraMax, and Kat-5. It is interesting to compare them to the earlier VaMP robot car of Mercedes-Benz and Ernst Dickmanns. The VaMP was built in the 1990s as a continuation of Dickmanns' earlier work at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in Munich; the project was funded in part by the $1 billion dollar EUREKA Prometheus Project.^[23] The VaMP was able to drive in traffic among moving obstacles, automatically passing slower vehicles; the DARPA cars were not (H1ghlander was standing still when Stanley passed it in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge) ^[24]. The VaMP reached speeds up to 180 km/h (111 mph); the DARPA cars were limited to top speeds of 80 km/h (50 mph). In 1995, the VaMP drove up to 158 km without human intervention on a Danish highway where most drivers adhere to the 110km/h general speed limit and passing is rarely necessary; decisions made by the VaMP were checked for validity by a human safety pilot (the 158km represent the longest stretch of thousands of km of test runs, and the terrain was self-selected by the VaMP team). In 2005, the DARPA cars drove 212 km (132 miles) without human intervention on the Grand Challenge course selected by the race organizers. VaMP drove on the mostly straight Autobahn^[23]; the DARPA cars drove on a variety of graded dirt roads, including narrow and steep mountain passes. The VaMP drove mostly by vision with some input provided by radar ^[25][26] but without GPS navigation; the DARPA cars heavily used GPS, always driving from one waypoint to the next (the DARPA course was unrehearsed by the teams but precisely given by almost 3000 waypoints, with several waypoints per curve). The DARPA cars combined other sensor data such as LIDAR, video cameras, and inertial guidance systems for better navigation in between waypoints, where road boundary identification was sometimes harder than on the Autobahn because of the unstructured terrain (Autobahn road boundaries are engineered to be easily visually observable but often partially hidden by trucks etc). The top speed of the VaMP's computer processors was 1000 times slower per dollar than those used in the DARPA vehicles^[23]. The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... H1ghlander during the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... TerraMax is an autonomous tactical cargo hauler created by Oshkosh Truck Corporations Big Truck Robotics that participated in both the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Kat-5 is an autonomous vehicle created by Team Gray, an organization comprised of employees from The Gray Insurance Company and students from Tulane Universitys School of Engineering, for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a race between autonomous robots, was held on October 8th and 9th 2005 in the Mojave Desert along a route of 132. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... Sandstorm moments before the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge qualifying run. ... H1ghlander during the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... TerraMax is an autonomous tactical cargo hauler created by Oshkosh Truck Corporations Big Truck Robotics that participated in both the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Kat-5 is an autonomous vehicle created by Team Gray, an organization comprised of employees from The Gray Insurance Company and students from Tulane Universitys School of Engineering, for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... This page is about the Mercedes-Benz brand of automobiles and trucks from the DaimlerChrysler automobile manufacturer. ... Ernst Dieter Dickmanns (born 1936), a former professor at the Universität der Bundeswehr München in Munich (1975 - 2001), is the pioneer of dynamic machine vision and of Driverless cars. ... The Bundeswehr (German for Federal Defence Force;  ) is the name of the unified armed forces of Germany. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München (pronounced listen) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... The EUREKA Prometheus Project (1987-1995) was the largest R&D project ever in the field of driverless cars. ... H1ghlander during the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. ... Stanley is an autonomous vehicle created by Stanford Universitys Stanford Racing Team. ... The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a race between autonomous robots, was held on October 8th and 9th 2005 in the Mojave Desert along a route of 132. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... Year 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full 1995 Gregorian calendar). ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of new technology for use by the military. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... This article is about the German, Austrian and Swiss road system. ... Modern grader in use by the US military. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... Over fifty GPS satellites such as this NAVSTAR have been launched since 1978. ... A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation. ... A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation. ... A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Table of geography, hydrography, and navigation, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... A waypoint is a reference point in physical space used for purposes of navigation. ... This article is about the German, Austrian and Swiss road system. ... The word vamp, Vamp, or VAMP can mean any of the following: Vamp (music), a repeating figure. ...

External links

Image File history File links Animation2. ...

Official Sites

• The home page of the DARPA Grand Challenge
• The home page of the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge
• DGC-2004 Teams
• The 2005 race results page
• Announcement of the 2007 Grand Challenge (PDF)
• Meet the Players

PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ...

Other Government-funded competitive prize initiatives thus far

• http://www.CentennialChallenges.NASA.gov: NASA's Centennial Challenges
• "H Prize": The Department of Energy's proposed prize for hydrogen fuel-related breakthroughs for breakthroughs in hydrogen fuel-related technology (http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/01/24/41211.aspx)

These round out the U.S. federal government's agencies having the 3 largest procurement budgets.

53 teams qualified for site visits in 2007

Prior Grand Challenge Team Sites

TV & Video coverage

• NOVA: The Great Robot Race
• Pre-event videos of the competitors
• WMV Video showing the world through Stanley's laser-beam eyes.
• Google Video: Lecture by Sebastian Thrun on winning the 2005 GC

Press Coverage

• The Register: Final robot grunts picked for $1million DARPA race
• The Register: DARPA's Grand Challenge proves to be too grand
• CNN.com: Robots fail to complete Grand Challenge
• SFGate.com: Robot race suffers quick, ignoble end
• 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge Image Gallery
• 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge in Spanish
• Journal of Field Robotics, Special Issue on DARPA Grand Challenge, Part 1
• Journal of Field Robotics, Special Issue on DARPA Grand Challenge, Part 2
• News from the qualifying events and team blogs
• Wired Magazine article on the DARPA Grand Challenge and Stanley.
• Popular Mechanics article on the DARPA Grand Challenge.
• Popular Science article on the DARPA Grand Challenge.
• Scientific American article on the DARPA Grand Challenge.
• NOVA: The Great Robot Race

References

1. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/
2. ^ CIMAR Grand Challenge Wrap-Up
3. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/
4. ^ DARPA Grand Challenge Site Resources page. Retrieved on October, 2007.
5. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp
6. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/docs/urb_challenge_announce.pdf
7. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/docs/PR_UC_Semifinalist_Announcement.pdf
8. ^ http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34619/113/
9. ^ http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34625/113/
10. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/
11. ^ http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34665/113/
12. ^ http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/34682/113/
13. ^ http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/
14. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/darpa-names-win.html
15. ^ http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/practical/2007/fall/victory.shtml
16. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/darpa-names-win.html
17. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/darpa-names-win.html
18. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/3-teams-out-of-.html
19. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/3-teams-out-of-.html
20. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/3-teams-out-of-.html
21. ^ http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/11/3-teams-out-of-.html
22. ^ DARPA Urban Challenge, a C++ based platform for testing Path Planning Algorithms: An application of Game Theory and Neural Networks. Cornell University (2007-08-25). Retrieved on 2007-11-04.
23. ^ ^{a b c} ROBOT CARS - autonomous vehicles - history of self-driving cars - best robot car. Retrieved on 2007-08-24.
24. ^ Stanley: The Robot That Won The DARPA Grand Challenge. Retrieved on 2007-08-26.
25. ^ http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/2004/243/cap2.pdf Dokumentenserver FU. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
26. ^ Google Cache of a pdf file on the VaMP. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.