The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency 2004 Grand Challenge

In March 2004, I had the good fortune of attending Defense Department's first autonomous (self-navigating) vehicle race. The U.S. Defense Department wants vehicles that can drive themselves for long distances, so it sponsored a race to spur people into developing new self-navigation technologies. The race started in Barstow, Calif--see my story at Government Computer News. I also snapped some photos....

DARPA’s robot race got underway in the pre-dawn hours. Starting chutes were fashioned from concrete bunkers. Once an official waved a green flag, the vehicle had 30 seconds to get out the starting gate:

Virginia Tech’s vehicle bolts out of the starting gate, followed closely by the control vehicle, which was manned by a DARPA official to watch the autonomous vehicle and stop it if got into a dangerous situation:

Virginia Tech’s vehicle being driven off the course, after its brakes locked up, disqualifying it from competition:

CanjunBot runs itself into a fence, and tries to hop over a bush:

Team ENSCO’s vehicle came to a spectacular end, after bolting from the starting gate and flipping over in some rough terrain:

University of Florida’s Navigator trucks off down the road:

CalTech team leader Richard Warren, his team’s vehicle off in the distance, beyond his help:

Team CalTech’s vehicle:

No steering wheel needed for CalTech truck:

CalTech’s vehicle was run by a team of personal computers, networked together:

Team TerraMax’s 5-ton truck tools down the road, sans driver:

The Blue Team’s self-driving motorcycle proved to be a limited success. Here it is disabled, a few feet from the starting gate:

Here is some of the terrain these vehicles needed to navigate through:

SciAutonics’ vehicle traveled almost a mile before veering off-route:

Warner Williams, who headed up Team Phantasm. Williams’ team had to forfeit in the last day of qualifications. A defective radar burned fried his vehicle’s computer in the process. Unfortunately, his programmer did not make a backup of the control program for the vehicle:

The Golem Team’s dark house vehicle, a Ford F-150, which defied expectations by traveling over 5 miles after a weak qualification:

Many of the vehicles used a commercial light detection and ranging, or Lidar, units, to find their way along the route:

A few teams used hardened laptops for vehicle control. SciAutonics’ Rascal used an Itronix GoBook:

Team CajunBot takes their vehicle out for a joyride after the race: