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 gear. Otherwise, there is nothing simulated about the environment in which the robots will be driving.
The pole positions are:
- Tartan
- Victor Tango
- Stanford
- Ben Franklin
- Team UCF
- MIT
- Team Cornell
- “Our Nightmare” Team Oshkosh
- Honeywell / Intelligent Vehicle Systems
- Team AnnieWay
- CarOLO
Robots will be released in order of pole position. Dr. Tether jokingly qualified Team Oshkosh as “our nightmare” because its robot, TerraMax, has tires that are bigger than some of the robots. The robots will all be operating concurrently, each following its own mission.
Robot Central will be there to watch the mahem, er, um, the competition.
