No Driver? No Problem.
One day, automatic or assisted driving may be a standard feature on your car, like automatic transmission is today. But on the battlefield, a vehicle that drives itself means a human being out of harm’s way. On November 3, DARPA aims to test the limits of research and capabilities of autonomous vehicles in the 2007 Urban Challenge. Twenty finalists will conduct simulated supply missions in mock urban terrain. The winner drives away with $2 million.
Note from the team lead…
The Georgia Tech-SAIC Sting Racing Team has been informed that we were among a set of participants that did not advance to the Urban Challenge finals on November 3rd. As a first-time entrant, the team has done an outstanding job making it to the semi-final round of the world’s most challenging robotics competition. We wish to express our gratitude for all the support we have received from Georgia Tech and the Atlanta community, as well as the expertise and technical support from our industry teammate, SAIC. We also give a hats-off to DARPA for administering a fair and flexible race.
Looking forward, we are excited to continue our part in the evolution of autonomous robotics research and the development of intelligent, safe vehicles. Our efforts in the DARPA Urban Challenge – particularly our autonomous vehicle, Sting 1 – will play a key role in our future research agenda, particularly as we study the safety and viability of implementing robotic elements on the road and in the home. We will remain here in California to root for the remaining competitors and learn all we can for next time.
Tucker Balch, Team Lead
Georgia Tech-SAIC Sting Racing Team
Sting Racing is no longer in the race
Last night we were informed by DARPA that Sting 1 will not be able to qualify for the finals. They requested that our race slots be used for teams that might make the race. Obviously we agreed on the schedule changes to accommodate teams that might make the finals.
It has been a race with some serious challenges after the crash last Saturday. We have worked hard to rectify the problems and to address the unforeseen problems that we have encountered. Unfortunately it was not enough.
The team is obviously very disappointed. We have worked hard to get to the race and have a truly amazing platform. We are now going to watch the rest of the qualifiers and the finals to learn as much as possible. In addition the team will take it easy a few days to recover from weeks of long hours.
Our run in area C
Monday PM: Sting Racing bounces back!
We’re very happy with our run on Course C today. In this course the vehicle runs loop after loop in a housing area, and other cars (driven by stunt drivers) interact with it at four-way stops. The robot got stuck once, requiring an intervention — our lead programmer had to restart one of our processes. We’re still assessing the cause of the problem. But overall the vehicle behaved very nicely.
Tomorrow morning we’re back on in Course A. This is the one that is grinding up lots of cars — besides our accident, there have been several others there. We’ve been investing a lot of time tuning our code for that test.
Some movies from the Urban Challenge
Our E-stop test and first autonomous run.
Visit the field station.
Contact Us
Stefany Wilson
Georgia Tech
Cell: (404) 312-6620
Email: stefany@cc.gatech.edu
Ron Zollars
SAIC
Phone: (858) 826-7896 or
(858) 229-5001
Fax: (858) 826-6634
Email: ronald.m.zollars@saic.com