Robo racers relish tough DARPA challenge

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 10 Oct 2005 at 15:29

From the deserts of Primm, Nevada, five 'autonomous' ground vehicles successfully completed the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, which is five more than last year.

The Intel-backed Ivy-leaguers from Stanford University scooped the $2 million prize with their robotic vehicle 'Stanley', the visual processing for which was powered by a Pentium M processor.

Stanley's time to complete the course was six hours and 53 minutes, and it was followed by two of the Carnegie-Mellon University's vehicles 'Sandstorm' and 'H1ghlander', which clocked 7:04 and 7:14, respectively.

In total five teams completed the course within the 10-hour time limit, in what was described by the organisers as 'militarily relevant rates of speed'. DARPA stands for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defence, which set up the Grand Challenge to boost research and development into autonomous ground vehicle technology for use on battlefields.

'The Grand Challenge stimulated the creation of a new community of innovators - inventors, mechanics, computer scientists, engineers, and students - who typically have not been involved in Defence-related activities,' said DARPA Grand Challenge Program Manager Ron Kurjanowicz. 'The camaraderie and competitiveness that have been the hallmark of the Grand Challenge since its inception demonstrates that America's heritage of ingenuity and resourcefulness is strong.'

You can read more about the race at www.grandchallenge.org.