Still More on the DARPA Grand Challenge

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DARPA Grand Challenge Teams Submit
Videos to DARPA

DARPA Grand Challenge Teams Submit
Videos to DARPA 03/14/2005 05:02 PM
Slashdot Mar 13 2005 11:31AM GMT

DARPA Grand Challenge PR Problems

DARPA Grand Challenge PR Problems 10/30/2003 11:57 PM
The DARPA Grand Challenge has generated a lot of interest and there are now over 100 teams preparing robots. Most of them are in for a shock when they find out DARPA has decided that only 20 robots will be allowed to enter. An editorial over at mobilerobotics.org has more details as well as transcript of a letter DARPA sent to one of the Grand Challenge Teams about the issue.

DARPA Announces Grand Challenge 2005

DARPA Announces Grand Challenge 2005 06/08/2004 03:16 PM

DARPA Grand Challenge Maps Revealed

DARPA Grand Challenge Maps Revealed 01/05/2004 06:49 PM
There's been lots of hype about DARPA's Grand Challenge - setting up a 250-mile race course that an autonomous vehicle would have to cover in a limited time period. The original plans said the course would only be revealed two hours before the race began, but for safety reasons, all of the potential routes have already been identified publicly, which is angering a number of contestants. They believe this will give an advantage to other contestants who can simply program in the various courses into their vehicles, which could take away from the whole point of the race. Already, the article reports that a company is offering to go over all of the potential courses with a laser and photographic equipment for any team that wants it. Again, this would seem to go against the entire point of the race (to create autonomous vehicles that could travel anywhere with no warning and no human control). Meanwhile, it looks like a group has taken my suggestion and organized a private version of such a race for all the teams that got rejected from the original one. I'm still waiting for them to sign a TV contract to get these shown on TV alongside Junkyard Wars.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Rules

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Rules 08/03/2004 08:46 AM
DARPA has released the proposed rules (PDF format) for the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005. This time around teams will be required to submit a video demonstration of their robot. Perhaps this will cut down on teams that show up at the final event with a DOA robot. No indication if they will reduce the excessive number of way points used in the first event. For more, see the DARPA discussion forum or the Slashdot discussion on the new rules.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Announced

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Announced 06/08/2004 04:55 PM
DARPA has announced the date for the next Grand Challenge: October 8, 2005. An informational conference for participants will be held on August 14, 2004 at the Anaheim Marriott in Anaheim, Califorinia. The cash prize has doubled from 1 million to 2 million dollars for the first team to complete the challenge. There's a already a Slashdot discussion on the topic.

New DARPA Grand Challenge live action
website

New DARPA Grand Challenge live action
website 04/23/2004 04:26 PM
Just launched: a website promising live virtual coverage of this weekend's Grand Challenge race, in which robotic vehicles will race accross the California desert.

Live Tracking will show relative positions of the Challenge entrants, and requires a 7 MB download each time you use your browser to view the tracking. The Status Board provides a 30 second update of the status of each Challenge team. The Image Gallery will contain the most recent images from the Challenge, updated nightly through March 14.

Link

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Rules
Announced

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 Rules
Announced 08/02/2004 08:53 PM

DARPA Grand Challenge Kicks Off March
13th

DARPA Grand Challenge Kicks Off March
13th 03/09/2004 12:19 AM

Moment of visual zen: DARPA Grand
Challenge illustration

Moment of visual zen: DARPA Grand
Challenge illustration 02/16/2004 01:14 PM
In this month's Popular Science Magazine, an illustration by Kenn Brown, who says:

"DARPA is putting together a race of autonomous (robotic) vehicles that runs from LA to Las Vegas. Completely remote, no one at the wheel. They are recruiting people (these guys are serious robot geeks who build and tinker with this stuff as a hobby and obsession) to build their own vehicles to participate in the race. The vehicles range from motorcycles to HumVees. The point of this story is to illustrate DARPA's interest in this technology, and that they hope to have autonomous vehicles waging war by 2015. "

Oh, goodie. I can hardly wait. Link

DARPA Grand Challenge Application
Deadline Rapidly Approaching

DARPA Grand Challenge Application
Deadline Rapidly Approaching 02/01/2005 08:58 PM
If you want a chance at winning the two million dollar prize in the DARPA Grand Challenge for robotic ground vehicles, you need to file an application soon.

DIY Team of Hot Rodders’ Among 40 Top
Teams Chosen for 2005 DARPA Grand
Challenge

DIY Team of Hot Rodders’ Among 40 Top
Teams Chosen for 2005 DARPA Grand
Challenge 06/17/2005 02:40 PM
Los Angeles based AI Motorvators team in the midst of 2 million dollar high-tech national competition. MIT, Princeton teams eliminated [PRWEB Jun 9, 2005]

DARPA Officially Cuts Off Grand
Challengers

DARPA Officially Cuts Off Grand
Challengers 11/04/2003 03:39 PM
We've been following the well-hyped DARPA "Grand Challenge" offroad autonomous vehicle challenge for a while now, and last week reported at how surprised DARPA was that over 100 applications were filed to participate. It seems that DARPA expected no more than 20 or so - and even told state and local officials that it would be no more than 20 in order to get their approval. So, now that they're backed into a corner, they say they're not going to let everyone race, which is pissing off many of the smaller, bootstrapped teams, who are afraid they're the most likely to get cut. The university/corporate backed teams, however, think it'll be good that they won't have to fend off the scrappy upstarts. Either way, this seems like an opportunity for someone. Clearly, there are a lot of folks willing to try to build such autonomous vehicles. Why not start a private offering to run similar races? Why not put them on TV? Make it like "Junkyard Wars" or whatever, and put a little cash behind the prizes. Assuming there are already 86 contestants who won't qualify for the DARPA challenge, you could set up 1-on-1 races and have a weekly show for more than two years just going through those teams. Even if you had five cars per race, you could easily put on a season's worth without even bringing back cars for more races. If it was even remotely successful, there would be no shortage of entrants. So, forget relying on the government to run this race, put the damn thing on TV and support it with private money.

PC-Powered Buggy, Motorcycle Compete In
DARPA Challenge

PC-Powered Buggy, Motorcycle Compete In
DARPA Challenge 03/06/2004 02:01 AM
We talk to two of the twenty-five teams designing vehicles for the DARPA Grand Challenge: a driverless car race across the desert for a $1 million prize.

Cobalt Horizons Responds to DARPA Grand
ChallengeDesert Field Test of Robotic
Vehicles Offers $2 Million Prize

Cobalt Horizons Responds to DARPA Grand
ChallengeDesert Field Test of Robotic
Vehicles Offers $2 Million Prize 09/25/2004 02:15 AM
Cobalt Horizons is competing in the Grand Challenge Competition to send an autonomous ground vehicle through a US Government sponsored 150 mile obstacle course in the Mojave Desert. [PRWEB Sep 25, 2004]

Computing need a Grand Challenge

Computing need a Grand Challenge 06/14/2004 08:10 AM
The Register Jun 14 2004 12:56PM GMT

Getting ready for the Grand Challenge

Getting ready for the Grand Challenge 11/17/2003 11:40 AM
A few months ago the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced the Grand Challenge, a Las Vegas to Los Angeles road race in which a road race in which all the contestants have to be "autonomous motor vehicles" that can drive and navigate entirely without any human control. The prize for this robotic Cannonball Run is a cool million bucks, which apparently attracted so many entrants that DARPA had to winnow the field to just nineteen qualifiers, though they may had six more teams to make it an even twenty-five. The race is still on for March 13th of next year and we'll have full coverage here on Gizmodo. Read [Via TechDirt]...

Grand Challenge Map Leaked

Grand Challenge Map Leaked 01/06/2004 11:54 AM
Bill Carlson tipped us off to the latest in a series of setbacks for DARPA's Grand Challenge competition. The course map (PDF format) has been leaked to the web. The map was supposed to be kept secret until hours before the race to insure that the robots were able navigate autonomously rather than being preprogrammed for the specific course. A story in The Register has more details about the leak.

Computing needs a Grand Challenge

Computing needs a Grand Challenge 06/14/2004 08:39 AM
Sir Tony Hoare lays down the gauntlet

Navigating the Grand Challenge Course

Navigating the Grand Challenge Course 06/11/2004 11:06 AM
CMU's Red Team has released a technical report detailing the mapping, planning, and navigation system used by their robot, Sandstorm, in the first DARPA Grand Challenge. The paper, title High Speed Navigation of Unrehearsed Terrain: Red Team Technology for Grand Challenge 2004 (PDF format), explains the capabilities and limitations of their navigation system. Both the hardware and software are covered. There's also a section about the "lessons learned" from the experience so far.

Are Sensors the key to Grand Challenge?

Are Sensors the key to Grand Challenge? 05/11/2004 12:12 PM
David Duke of RobotCorps has written a new Robotics Trends article that proposes the idea that the DARPA Grand Challenge is less about robots than about sensor technology. David offers an overview of the types of sensors used by robots entered in this year's DARPA contest and suggests possible sensor technology that we may see in the next contest such as SEEGRID's vision technology.

More Grand Challenge News

More Grand Challenge News 03/08/2004 11:16 PM
As we approach March 13, lots of stories are being submitted about the DARPA Grand Challenge. Since our last update, Nature has posted a short article on the race with a small photo gallery of robots and a note about environmentalists concerned that the event might disturb endangered desert tortoises. DARPA now has a crew of "tortoise marshals" rounding up any tortoises that stray into the event area. Doug McGray sent us a link to his in-depth Wired article (which includes quite a few photos). Seth Cabe emailed to say that the Team LoGHIQ website has been updated with new photos and video of their robot. Globalstar issued a press release recently saying they will provide tracking services for the race. Data will be collected from each vehicle and relayed via the Globalstar satellite constellation allowing DARPA to update a map throughout the event. And, last for today, the L.A. Daily news recently ran a story about the Spirit of Vegas team, who aren't going to finish their robot in time for the race.

Fortune on the Grand Challenge

Fortune on the Grand Challenge 02/16/2004 01:23 PM
Good story in Fortune Small Business about one of the teams competiting in the Grand Challenge, that Las Vegas to Los Angeles road race in...

System X Takes on the Grand Challenge

System X Takes on the Grand Challenge 03/22/2005 03:43 PM
In 2003, Virginia Tech built a supercomputer using Power Mac G5s, which ranked as the fastest computer system at any academic institution. From that milestone, Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan and his team have moved ahead again with System X, a new cluster using 1,100 Xserve G5s. [Mar 21, 2005]

The Grand Flying Robot Challenge

The Grand Flying Robot Challenge 07/23/2004 03:08 PM
If you're sitting around waiting for the X-Prize contestants to blast into space looking for their millions of dollars, or the autonomous vehicles of DARPA's grand challenge to figure out how to travel more than 10 feet or so, there are always other similar "grand challenges" going on. Apparently going on for four years now, the International Aerial Robotics Competition was held yesterday to see if teams could create a robot that can "fly 3 miles, identify a building and enter it in less than 15 minutes." Once again, however, no team successfully finished the challenge. Each year, though, the prize goes up another $10,000. So, while no one won the $40,000 this year, next year the prize should be $50,000. Get to work.

Aerial View of Grand Challenge Course

Aerial View of Grand Challenge Course 07/05/2004 04:06 PM
Tim Holt has created a web app that combines the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge waypoint data with aerial images from the Terrasoft database to create an interactive aerial map of the Grand Challenge course. You can explore the map or jump directly to a waypoint of your choice. Images are at the 1 meter/pixel scale, and max off-track distance is represented to scale.

Grand Challenge Teams in the News

Grand Challenge Teams in the News 03/06/2004 02:03 AM
As the DARPA Grand Challenge approaches, articles about teams and their robots are begining to show up in lots of local papers. The Baton Rouge Advocate has an article on University of Louisiana at Lafayette's CajunBot. CajunBot also rated an article in the Lafayette Advertiser. You can read about the University of Florida's Team CIMAR Navigator in a recent newswise article. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covers the CMU Red Team's Sandstorm. And the San Francisco Chronicle recently covered the three teams from the Bay Area: Team Digital Auto Drive, Team Overbot, and the Blue Team.

Grand Challenge Participants Announced

Grand Challenge Participants Announced 11/14/2003 08:38 PM
Last week we reported how DARPA was stunned that over 100 teams had decided to enter their Grand Challenge of creating a completely autonomous vehicle that could navigate a 250-mile course which would be revealed only hours before the race began. Folks at DARPA were under the belief that maybe 10-15 teams would enter the race, and had promised local officials that no more than 20 would race. It appears they've pushed that upper limit to 25. They've made the official cuts and named nineteen qualifying teams - and said they may name six more out of a group of twenty-six teams who could qualify (DARPA folks want to visit with each of those teams to determine if they can join the race). They also said that, of the 106 applications requested, twenty teams didn't actually submit the application. Thus, forty-one teams were rejected outright. Of those that made the cut, you might be surprised to find a high school team mixed in with teams from CalTech and Carnegie Mellon. The full list of the nineteen approved teams can be found here.

$1 million Grand Challenge map leaked on
Web

$1 million Grand Challenge map leaked on
Web 01/05/2004 06:50 PM
DARPA says all going as planned

Nanotech's grand challenge is
sustainable development

Nanotech's grand challenge is
sustainable development 04/12/2005 10:44 AM
Big things expected of small science

Carnegie Mellon's Red Team takes on the
Grand Challenge

Carnegie Mellon's Red Team takes on the
Grand Challenge 12/08/2003 11:48 AM
Article in the Carnegie Mellon News about the university's entry into the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Grand Challenge, a 250 mile Las Vegas to Los Angeles road race in which all the vehicles have to be able to navigate and complete the race without any human control. The Red Team's planning to race a robotic Hummer that's been tricked out with special electronics, mechanics, and software. Read [Thanks, Josh]...

DARPA's Grand Challenge Autonomous Road
Race Much More Popular Than Expected

DARPA's Grand Challenge Autonomous Road
Race Much More Popular Than Expected 10/30/2003 11:46 PM
We wrote about DARPA's "Grand Challenge" road race when it was first announced and then a few months ago. In the meantime, it appears that it's really struck a nerve with a lot of people. DARPA says they've received 106 applications to participate, which is a lot more than they expected. They thought there would be much fewer (under 30) applicants, and that many wouldn't pass initial scrutiny. The plan was to announce the entrants by now, but with so many applications, the review process is taking much longer than expected. The Challenge, if you haven't been following the story, is to build a completely autonomous vehicle that can drive on-road and off, which will have to complete a 250 mile course, all by itself, that will only be revealed two hours before the race begins.

CMU Red Team Gets More DARPA GC Help

CMU Red Team Gets More DARPA GC Help 03/14/2005 06:03 PM
According to a Duke University press release, Duke will be offering assistance to the CMU Red Team. They plan to equip both CMU robots with their "Duke Radar Object Identification Device" (DROID). The radar sensors will use a unique approach by trying to identify only above ground objects while avoiding the terrain itself. They hope this will reduce clutter in the resulting data. Duke is the latest in a long list of organizations donating time, equipment, and money toward a CMU win in the DARPA Grand Challenge.

Brief: HP awarded DARPA contract

Brief: HP awarded DARPA contract 04/04/2005 07:10 PM
Hewlett-Packard said it was been awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to improve network performance in combat situations.

DARPA Wants BigDog for the Army

DARPA Wants BigDog for the Army 03/14/2005 06:03 PM
A recent Guardian Unlimited article describes the latest test results of a four legged robot being built by Boston Dynamics under a DARPA contract. The company claims the internal combustion-powered, biomemetic (or biodynotic as they call) robot, named BigDog, will be able to carry a single soldier's gear where ever the soldier goes. The company says the prototype can carry up to 50kg and climb 30 degree slopes. The first military versions will be expensive but once mass-produced, a consumer version would be much cheaper, perhaps priced "similar to a car". The company is still not releasing photos of the robot but a Wired article from last year includes some drawings.

DARPA Robotwars++ worth $1,000,000

DARPA Robotwars++ worth $1,000,000 11/10/2003 11:12 PM
The DARPA said last Thursday that 86 teams have submitted technical papers describing their proposed robotic cars that can drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on an off-road course in 10 hours, with a top prize of $1,000,000

DARPA Contest Goes Into Orbit

DARPA Contest Goes Into Orbit 04/07/2005 05:24 AM
Sci-Tech Today Apr 7 2005 9:25AM GMT

Darpa Offers No Food for Thought

Darpa Offers No Food for Thought 02/17/2004 05:53 AM
Pentagon scientists are trying to find a way for GIs to live without food for up to five days. The effort is part of larger initiative to develop soldiers who are immune to everyday human concerns. By Noah Shachtman.

Another DARPA-Sponsored Robotics
Competition

Another DARPA-Sponsored Robotics
Competition 01/04/2004 05:49 PM

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Still More on the DARPA Grand Challenge

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