WASHINGTON, 5 April 2005. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that 118 Grand Challenge 2005 teams have been selected to receive visits by DARPA personnel for in-depth, on-site evaluations of their autonomous vehicles.
DARPA will use the site visit results to invite the top 40 teams to the Grand Challenge National Qualification Event, September 27 to October 5, 2005, at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
From May 2 to May 15, DARPA personnel will visit the 118 teams at locations across the U.S. to assess each team's autonomous vehicle's capabilities on a 200-meter test course. The vehicles will be evaluated on their ability to navigate among waypoints, stay within course boundaries, and avoid randomly placed obstacles.
The site visits are an essential element of the qualification process for the Grand Challenge and will enable a realistic assessment of a vehicle's potential to complete the Grand Challenge course. According to the Grand Challenge 2005 Program Manager, Ron Kurjanowicz, "Site visits give DARPA a chance to meet the personnel, evaluate the autonomous operation of the vehicles, and assess other vehicle qualities required for a team's vehicle to finish the Grand Challenge route across the desert."
DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 is a field test of autonomous ground vehicles for the purpose of advancing autonomous vehicle technology. The 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. DARPA will award $2 million to the team whose autonomous vehicle successfully completes the 2005 route the fastest within a 10-hour time period. Teams are developing their vehicles without government funding.
Kurjanowicz said the teams are working hard to ready their vehicles for the DARPA site visits and reiterated DARPA's appreciation for the enthusiastic response to the Grand Challenge from innovators across the United States and abroad. "A robust community of inventors, engineers, mechanics, students, and scientists has risen to meet the challenge to develop innovative autonomous vehicle capabilities that will save lives on the battlefield."
The teams selected for site visits are listed below:
A.I. Motorvators
Allied Forces
Alphalogix Alphaworks
Arctic Tortoise
Atlas Offroad
Austin Robot Technology
Autobots
Autonomous Ingenuity
Autonomous Vehicle Systems
AutonomX
Autonosys
AutoTrek
Axion Racing
Bearcats
BJB Engineering
Blue Team
Cakewalk
Calculated RISC
CIMAR
Cyber Nav
CyberRider
D2
Dakota Robotics
Desert Arrow
Desert Buckeyes
Dotmobil Team
Easy Does It
G-CART @ RIT
GP Machine Intelligence
Grand Challenge New Zealand
GRASP Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania
Gray Team
Highlander Racing
I to the Future
Indiana Robotic Navigation
Indy Robot Racing Team
Inginouity
Insight Racing
Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies I
Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies II
Intrepid
Kings High School/Team Robo Knight
KNetX
Lunatic Fringe
Mojavaton
MonsterMoto
Oregon WAVE
Palos Verdes Road Warriors
Patriot Robots
Pegasus
Princeton University
"R" Junk Works
Red Team
Red Team Too
Rob Meyer Productions
Roboway
ROGUE
SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering
Simple Solutions Inclusive
Spurrier's Hurriers
Stanford Racing Team
Team Aggie Spirit (UC Davis)
Team AION
Team Alice
Team Banzai
Team Buffalo
Team CajunBot
Team CajunBot-II
Team Cal Poly
Team Caltech
Team CART
Team Cornell
Team Cornell II
Team CrossLand
Team DAD
Team ENSCO
Team ET (Embedded Technology)
Team George
Team Grand Challenger
Team Improbability
Team IQ (Intelligent Quad)
Team Jefferson
Team Juggarnaut
Team LoGHIQ
Team Manticore - M.I.T.
Team NOVA
Team OCCAM
Team Overbot
Team Phantasm
Team Robo Monster
Team Sleipnir
Team TerraMax
Team Texas Tech
Team Tormenta
Team UCF
Team UMass Dartmouth
Team Underdawg
Team UTC
Team Visionary Endeavor
Team Wedge
Team White Cougar
Team XAR
Team-Possible
Terra Engineering
The A Team
The Golem Group / UCLA
The MITRE Meteorites
The Prodigies
Toughbot
Trobo
Two Much Trouble (T.M.T.)
UBC-CERM3 Team Thunderbird
University of Washington
Utah Robotics
Virginia Tech Grand Challenge Team
Virginia Tech Team Rocky
Vista Engineering
West Coast Robotics
DARPA is the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. The agency manages basic and applied research and development projects for the DoD, and pursues research in technology areas where the risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions. For more information, see www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge.
