Events
It’s Official. Carnegie Mellon Wins the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge
Tartan Racing’s “Boss” of Pittsburgh, Penn. turned in the top performance in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge and won the $2 million cash prize as the competition’s first-place winner, DARPA announced today. Stanford Racing’s “Junior” of Stanford, Calif., won the $1 million second place prize, while Victor Tango’s “Odin” of Blacksburg, [...]
Ray Renteria | 3 comments | Continued
First Three Urban Challengers Complete Missions
The competition is not quite over; however, three of the final six teams have met their mission objectives already. Who ranks 1st, 2nd, and 3rd is still to be determined as judges calculate each of the robot’s penalties and running times. Considering the substantial margin and relatively low number of penalties for Stanford’s Junior, Carnegie [...]
Ray Renteria | 3 comments | Continued
Urban Challenge Sees its First Robot Fender Bender
I doubt the insurance company is going to cover this collision. At 12:35 PM local time Cornell’s robot, Skynet, stopped itself in front of MIT’s robot. Skynet stayed there long enough that MIT’s robot made an executive decision to pass. It successfully passed Skynet’s DARPA chase vehicle. As MIT approached Skynet, it made another executive [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
Photos from the Tent
I’ve been talking to a lot of people about all sorts of technologies and programming algorithms. I took a minute to break out of that mode to absorb the ambiance here today. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced including the 2005 Grand Challenge tent. The ’05 tent was mostly occupied by engineers and media. The [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
Urban Challenge Update: TerraMax, IVS, AnnieWay are Out
A spectator favorite, Team Oshkosh’s Terra Max literally almost took out a building. At this point, it’s unclear what went wrong. There was aerial video footage that showed Terra Max butted up against a brick pillar. I don’t know if there was contact. Annie Way placed itself in pause mode and DARPA made a decision [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
DARPA Urban Challenge: One Bot Taking Names, Two Bots Struggling
This morning’s launch was relatively smooth. Intelligent Vehicle Systems had some trouble when it saw a k-rail and paused itself for too long. DARPA allowed the team to reset and reposition itself for a relaunch. Their relaunch was successful and they’re doing well now. As a matter of fact, as I type this, I witnessed [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
DARPA Urban Challenge : Pole Positions Announced!!
Just minutes ago, Dr. Tony Tether announced the pole positions of the robots as they are unleashed into a simulated urban environment at the Urban Challenge Final Event Saturday. The environment is simulated only in that human-driven vehicles will have roll cages and six point harnesses and all the drivers will be wearing protective head [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
Velodyne Prez talks Mobile Sensing
I wrote about the Velodyne sensor a couple of weeks ago touting its commercial viability in the emerging mobile robotics market. I had a chance to talk to one of its inventors today. Velodyne President Bruce Hall made it clear that although his company doesn’t have a vehicular entrant, they are clearly and very visibly [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
DARPA Urban Challenge Team Develops Autonomy-In-A-Box Product
Team Gray may not have advanced to the finals but they’ve got their sights on bigger targets. With their latest autonomy in-a-box they may be positioned to become the Microsoft and IBM of autonomous vehicles. Chief Engineer Paul Trepagnier explained that the Autonomous Vehicle System, or AVS for short, is a completely self-contained unit comprised [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued
DARPA Urban Challenge Update: Only 11 Teams Selected for Final Run
DARPA tightened the scrutiny of the finalist selection process. DARPA originally planned on selecting the top 20 performers to participate in the final event. In a sudden change of plans, DARPA selected 11. The selected teams are: Ben Franklin Racing Team, Philadelphia, PA (Track B) CarOLO, Caroline, NY (Track B) Honeywell/Intelligent Vehicle Solutions, Troy, MI [...]
Ray Renteria | 0 comments | Continued