DARPA chooses teams for Urban Challenge
The winners of last year’s
Pentagon-sponsored robot race are back to take on another challenge — this
time to develop a vehicle that can drive through congested city traffic all by
itself.
Stanley, the off-road DARPA winner
The winners of last year’s Pentagon-sponsored robot race are back to take on another challenge — this time to develop a vehicle that can drive through congested city traffic all by itself.
Stanford University, whose unmanned Volkswagen dubbed Stanley won last year’s desert race, was among 11 teams selected Monday to receive government money to participate in a contest requiring robots to carry out a simulated military supply mission.
Stanford, which teamed up with the German automaker again, will enter a Passat sedan outfitted with the latest sensors, lasers and other high-tech gear. Engineers have tested the car on a closed course and will begin actual tests after scientists finish writing the program that will serve as the car’s brain.
The competition, slated to take place in a yet-undisclosed location in November 2007, is supported by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to spur development of military vehicles that could fight in war zones without any sort of remote control.
The robotic vehicles will have to navigate a complex 60-mile test course designed like a real city street filled with moving manned and unmanned vehicles. Participants will be tested on how well they make sharp turns, navigate traffic circles and avoid obstacles such as utility poles, trees and parked cars. The vehicles will also have to obey traffic laws, change lanes, merge with moving cars and pull into a parking lot using only their computer brain and sensors.
Forget the military function. I know civilians who can’t get from here to there — even with a cell phone, map and GPS — in their car. We should use this competition to build vehicles for the cable guy.
Posted: Fri - October 6, 2006 at 06:40 AM