06 Nov 2007 10:56
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or Darpa, raised the green flag on Saturday on 11 driverless cars to manoeuvre through a 60-mile course at the former George Air Force Base in Oro Grande, California — or what race officials dubbed Darpa city. It was part of Darpa's $3.5m (£1.6m) robot race, the Urban Grand Challenge.
Stanford university's robot, Junior, was the first to cross the finishing line in the Urban Grand Challenge, a six-hour test of autonomous vehicles with three separate missions. But the robot ultimately lost to Carnegie Mellon University's driverless car, Boss, which was faster overall.
Carnegie Mellon's team, Tartan Racing, won the $2m (£1m) first prize. Stanford took second place and snagged $1m (£500,000).
Carnegie Mellon's robot, Boss, a modified Chevy Tahoe, approaches the finishing line on Saturday, just minutes after Stanford's car, Junior.
Boss started the course as much as 20 minutes later than Junior and went on to win the event.
Virginia Tech's team, VictorTango, won third prize and $500,000 (£240,000) in the Urban Grand Challenge on Saturday.
Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing, whose winning vehicle is pictured here at the start gate, was expected to leave the shoot first but had a technical problem, so it left the starting gate last. One of the Carnegie Mellon team members said the vehicle was having trouble pulling down positioning data from its GPS (global positioning system).
Darpa officials opened the race-day ceremony with the US national anthem, four Marines on Mustang horses, and a loud "Boo-yah".
Darpa director Tony Tether said he was "holding his breath" to see robot meet robot on the course for the first time in history.
Darpa released more than 30 vehicles to simulate real traffic conditions for the robots in the Urban Challenge. The vehicles, modified Ford Taurus cars, were built for safety, specified to Nascar standards, according to race officials. And the cars are driven by professional drivers.
Race officials said that there was a bet among the drivers on who would get hit first.
At the race, you can easily spot members of various teams by the colours of their gear. Pictured here are members of CMU's Tartan Racing in red, looking somewhat concerned because their robot, called Boss, was having technical difficulties before the start of the race. It was expected to leave the chute first, but it was replaced by VictorTango.
Stanford University's robot, Junior, left the starting gate shortly after 8am PDT Saturday with a few jerks, but then it seemed to drive smoothly. Stanford won the 2005 Darpa Grand Challenge, a race in the desert, so the team is highly favoured in this year's competition.
Team Ben Franklin, which raced a modified Toyota Prius, is seen leaving the starting gate after 8am. The team completed its first mission of three in the race before 11am.
MIT's robot, Talos, left the starting gate with no problems. Race officials called bot number 79 the world's most expensive Land Rover, because of all its equipment and sensors. One of the sensors alone, the Velodyne lidar, costs as much $75,000 (£35,000).
The team from UCF, or the University of Central Florida, drives on the course of the Urban Grand Challenge. It was eliminated within hours of the competition after running into an abandoned house on the former George Air Force Base.
CMU had a backup robot waiting in the wings just in case anything like an accident came up during the race. If a robot were in an accident and not at fault, the team would have roughly 30 minutes to fix the vehicle and get back in the race, according to Darpa rules.
Team Oshkosh, a more-than-24,000lb Oshkosh truck, nearly ran into an old shopping centre at the former George Air Force Base, after it had run over a parking lot curb. The team was later cut from the competition.
One of the trickiest points in the challenge, a four-way stop in an old housing area of the former George Air Force Base. Here, the bots had to figure out which car had the right of way before making right or left turns. The team from UCF, pictured to the right at the stop sign, was stuck for several minutes trying to figure out what to do next. Meanwhile, the robots from Stanford, MIT and CMU navigated the intersection without trouble.
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