The Real Urban Driving Challenge

DARPA has announced plans to hold its third Grand Challenge competition on November 3, 2007. Unlike last year's dash across the Mojave Desert, the DARPA Urban Challenge will feature autonomous ground vehicles executing simulated military supply missions in a mock urban area.

DARPA will award prizes for the top three autonomous ground vehicles that compete in a final event where they must safely complete a 60-mile urban area course in fewer than six hours. First prize is $2 million, second prize is $500,000 and third prize is $250,000. To succeed, vehicles must autonomously obey traffic laws while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles.

Big deal. It seems to me that the real challenge will be to complete the 60-mile course on less than $60 of gas, and then find a parking place. Good luck.

Challenge planners are more optimistic than I am, however. "Grand Challenge 2005 proved that autonomous ground vehicles can travel significant distances and reach their destination, just as you or I would drive from one city to the next," said DARPA Director Dr. Tony Tether. "After the success of this event, we believe the robotics community is ready to tackle vehicle operation inside city limits."

To accelerate development of the autonomous ground vehicle technologies required for urban operations and to ensure the widest possible participation, DARPA announced two ways for teams to qualify and compete in the Urban Challenge. One way involves teams submitting a detailed proposal for up to $1 million of technology development funds in response to a DARPA solicitation. The Government will obtain limited license rights to technologies developed using this funding. Applicants that do not submit a proposal or who are not selected to receive development funds may still compete in the Urban Challenge using the second track.

The second track is similar to that used for Grand Challenge 2005: teams will submit applications and participate in a series of qualification activities. Each team that participates as a 2-2-2 semi-finalist in the National Qualification Event (NQE) will be awarded $50,000. Each team that is successful at NQE will receive $100,000 and compete in the Urban Challenge final event.

To learn more about the Grand Challenge, hear what Mike Montemerlo, software lead for the Stanford University Racing Team, has to say about some of the challenges the team faced in winning the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge for autonomous vehicles.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:40 AM  Permalink