Autonomous Vehicles
June 8, 2005 The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous ground vehicle competition was narrowed down to 40 teams yesterday – the teams which will compete from September 27 to October 5 to be one of the final 20 teams to compete in the second “race of the century” on October 8, 2005. The DARPA Grand Challenge is a race for fully autonomous vehicles – no drivers, no human assistance, no remote control. From the point that the vehicles leave the starting gate on October 8, they will be on their own an vehicles must travel approximately 150 miles over rugged desert roads using only onboard sensors and navigation equipment to find and follow the route and avoid obstacles. See our race report from the first race or read on for details of the second race and contestants. Read More
March 13, 2004 will go down as one of the most significant dates in technological history – the first running of the DARPA Grand Challenge. As in the first automobile race 110 years earlier, a significant “Grand Prix” of US$1 MILLION was posted, though the competitors knew they were really competing for a place in history and many spent multiples of that amount just preparing for the race. The 142 mile course of rugged desert terrain from Barstow (near Los Angeles) to Primm (near Las Vegas) had to be traversed within ten hours by fully autonomous vehicles – no drivers, no human assistance, no remote control. Significantly, the race was not won, and the mass media coverage bordered on mockery. Read More
The DARPA Grand Challenge was the first race for autonomous robots from LA to Las Vegas on March 13, 2004 with a US$1 million prize. The race was be contested by 24 cars and one autonomous two-wheeler. This interview was conducted with the Team leader of the Ghostrider Robot Team, Anthony Levandowski just prior to the event. Read More
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense has announced that it will hold a second Grand Challenge for Autonomous Robotic Ground Vehicles on October 8, 2005. Read More
One of the most interesting entries in the recent DARPA GRAND CHALLENGE was an autonomous motorcycle entered by the GhostRider Robot team, headed by 23 year old Anthony Levandowski and is Berkeley University’s official entry. Levandowski, is a serial entrepreneur at just 23 years of age and has invested a lot of his own money in getting the project up. We spoke with Anthony prior to the event and subsequent to the event to see what he’d learned. Read More
