THE DEFENSE ADVANCED RESEARCH AGENCY DARPA AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC VEHICLE GRAND CHALLENGE 2005 HOME LINKS USA MILITARY DOD

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense (US DoD). DARPA’s mission is to leverage ingenuity and research to develop transformational technologies that might give the armed forces of the United States a decisive edge.

Created in response to a Congressional and DoD mandate, DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test intended to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles that will help save American lives on the battlefield. The Grand Challenge brings together individuals and organizations from industry, the R&D community, government, the armed services, academia, students, backyard inventors, and automotive enthusiasts in the pursuit of a technological challenge.

After the embarrassment of last year's DARPA Grand Challenge, both the U.S. Defense Department and teams of engineers came back even more determined to see the contest end successfully. On Saturday, October 8, that's exactly what happened.

A heavily-modified 2005 Volkswagon Touareg named "Stanley" and representing Stanford University Racing finished the 131.6 mile trek with no human input to steer the vehicle through the Nevada desert, earning the Stanford team a cash prize of $2 million in taxpayer dollars and a whole lot of bragging rights.

Right behind Stanford was a pair of bright red vehicles, both a lot duller from their dust coats, representing Red Team from Carnegie Mellon University. The first CM car, a modified 1986 Hummer named "Sandstorm," came in 11 minutes later, followed by another Hummer, dubbed "H1lander."

Thirty minutes later came the only other team to finish that day, a 2005 Ford Hybrid Escape named "GrayBot" from The Gray Insurance Company. Gray sponsored the team, which consisted of Tulane University students, from Louisiana. Perhaps theirs is the greatest success story of the contest, as they had two hurricanes to contend with along with the desert winds.

The Stanford Vehicle (nicknamed "Stanley") is based on a stock, Diesel-powered Volkswagen Touareg R5, modified with full body skid plates and a reinforced front bumper. Stanley is actuated via a drive-by-wire system developed by Volkswagen of America's Electronic Research Lab.

All processing takes place on seven Pentium M computers, powered by a battery-backed, electronically-controlled power system. The vehicle incorporates measurements from GPS, a 6DOF inertial measurement unit, and wheel speed for pose estimation.

While the vehicle is in motion, the environment is perceived through four laser range finders, a radar system, a stereo camera pair, and a monocular vision system. All sensors acquire environment data at rates between 10 and 100 Hertz. Map and pose information are incorporated at 10 Hz, enabling Stanley to avoid collisions with obstacles in real-time while advancing along the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge route.

The development of Stanley began in July 2004. At the time of the initial team application, the vehicle is largely functional and has logged dozens of autonomous miles along the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge course.

Five teams completed the Grand Challenge; four of them under the 10 hour limit. The Stanford Racing Team took the prize with a winning time of 6 hours, 53 minutes. Press Release

Pictures from DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Photos from the Grand Challenge Event and the National Qualification Events are available for download. Event Photos

Route Data Definition File (RDDF) The waypoint file, RDDF, for DAPRA Grand Challenge 2005 has been posted for download. Grand Challenge RDDF

“…Now we need to teach them how to drive in traffic.”
-- Gary Bradski, Intel Corporation as quote in the October 17, 2005 issue of the EE Times.

The DARPA Grand Challenge is a competition and field test over rugged desert terrain, to accelerate research and development in autonomous robotic ground vehicles. Optech’s ILRIS-3D Intelligent Laser Ranging and Imaging System is being incorporated as a key component in the sensor array of Team Mojavaton’s 2005 entry, a Nissan Xterra (dubbed the “Xboxx”) autonomous vehicle. No remote control is permitted. Once the vehicles leave the starting line, they must rely exclusively on their on-board sensors , navigation instruments, and computers to “see” the terrain ahead and follow the course to the finish line 150 miles away.

“This capability of true three-dimensional imaging and the associated artificial intelligence which must be employed to interpret the data will undoubtedly provide a strategic advantage over previous imaging strategies,” said Brent Gelhar, Director, Laser Imaging Division for Optech. “This will not merely be a reactive collision avoidance system, it is an active spatial recognition tool.”

The knowledge gained through this exercise will further drive the understanding and deployment of autonomous vehicle sensor subsystems for Optech’s already proven leadership in lidar technologies.

“We are very fortunate to have Optech as a partner in this event,” said Jim Crittenden, Team Mojavaton’s team leader. “Their experience and the quality of their equipment is unsurpassed and both will be a tremendous advantage in this exciting project. They are clearly at the leading edge of this technology.”

At the first DARPA Grand Challenge, held in March 2004, 15 vehicles operating autonomously attempted a 142-mile route through the Mojave Desert. Since no vehicle was able to complete the route, DARPA is hosting this second Grand Challenge event. None of these vehicles completed the course, so the $1,000,000 went unclaimed. The second Grand Challenge will take place on Saturday, October 9, 2005. The location has only been announced as “somewhere in the California/Nevada desert area.” The prize for the fastest vehicle to complete the course in less than 10 hours will be $2,000,000 this time.

Team CyberRider is comprised entirely of volunteers. Based in Orange County, the team is a non-profit organization. They are not funded at taxpayers expense. Team CyberRider is using their non-profit status as an outreach to the Southern California educational community, by challenging local High School and College students to participate in this landmark event.

Rules for DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 were published on October 8, 2004. E-mail questions about the rules to Grandchallenge@darpa.mil. Rules

For a compilation of replies to questions sent to the Grand Challenge staff, click here.

After a week of qualification, inspection and demonstration (QID) at the California Motor Speedway, 15 teams qualified to participate in the DARPA challenge. All teams demonstrated that they could traverse the practice courses safely while avoiding obstacles. The vehicles are all totally autonomous (they have no driver). They will be departing from Barstow, California starting at 6:30 AM on March 13th, 2004. The teams hope to have their robotic vehicles arrive across the desert in Primm, Nevada in under ten hours.

Director of DARPA, Dr. Anthony Tether commented: "When we first came up with the idea of the Grand Challenge, our hope was to attract the most talented and diverse group of teams. The final group of teams shows that our effort to attract top-quality participants has been an unqualified success."

Each competing vehicle will be trailed by a vehicle containing government officials and an emergency stop system to prevent collisions or other unsafe situations. There are boundaries that the vehicles must stay within or be disqualified. Disabled vehicles will be removed from the course.

The selected teams are listed below in official starting order, based on results from the QID:

Abarth

Alfa Romeo

Allard

Alvis

Amphicar

Aprilia

Armstrong Siddeley

Auto Union

Benelli

Bertone

Cadillac

Cagiva

Delahaye

DKW

Dodge

Ducati

Du Pont

Gilera

Ginetta

Gordon Keeble

Gregoire

Hanomag

Harley Davidson

Heinkel

Hillman

Honda

Hummer

Husqvarna

Hyundai

Indian

Iso

Jösse

Kawasaki

KIA

KTM

Lagonda

Laverda

Lincoln

Morris

Moto Guzzi

MV Augusta

Nissan

Nelson

Norton

Oldsmobile

Opel

Packard

Panhard

Pegaso

Pininfarina

Royal Enfield

Sachs

Smart

Steyr-Puch

Tata

Tatra

Treser

Vespa

Yamaha

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