DARPA Grand challenge - an exercise in robotics

DARPA grand challenge

What is it?

The DARPA grand challenge is a US based challenge sponsored by the Department of Defense under the ‘Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’ arm. DARPA is unique in that it gives technological option to the Department of Defense. It accelerates development of technological advances to make what might be possible in the future possible.

The grand challenge is a result of the goal by the military to develop unmanned vehicles for use in warfare. In order to accelerate development in the field, DARPA created a challenge open to teams around the world to develop autonomous vehicles to drive around a preset path. The vehicles had to have no human intervention.

Sadly, no vehicle completed the race, but it did highlight some of the dangers and pitfalls when designing an autonomous vehicle. Encouraged by the result that they did move autonomously for some distance, DARPA announced a second grand challenge to be held in the desert in 2005. The goal was to drive to path in less than 5 hours. 3 vehicles managed to successfully do this, and a fourth finished the course after being parked on a hilltop overnight due to lack of battery power and low sunlight. The rest had various problems with components.

In 2006, DARPA announced another grand challenge. Dubbed the urban challenge, he vehicles must now successfully navigate traffic, and follow local traffic laws (including traffic lights). It will be held late in 2007