DARPA Challenge

[Kevin A]

Hello,

How many teams are participating in the DARPA challenge, the one where you are to create an autonomous vehicle to drive from LA to LV, or the other way around(im not sure). The event is going to happen around Feb. 2004.

Kevin
team 481

[Ed Crammond]

I'd like our team to, but i think its a bit out of our league. And its over 4000 miles away.

On the other hand it would solve our funding needs for a good few years. And it cant be that hard...just strap the gyro chip onto a sherman tank and your pretty much there

[FotoPlasma]

Seeing as how we're all pretty much involved in FIRST's robotics competition, I'd be really surprised if any students (not to say that mentors wouldn't be involved) were involved in any DARPA Challenge team. But, it'll be held in 2004, so I can't really say anything about participation. It'd be extremely cool if a FIRST organized team would participate, in my humble opinion.

I read an article in a newspaper, a week ago, or so, about the whole thing, and to be honest, it looks awesome.

From The DARPA Challenge, Los Angeles to Las Vegas, website
DARPA intends to conduct a challenge of autonomous ground vehicles between Los Angeles and Las Vegas in March of 2004. A cash award of $1 million will be granted to the team that fields the first vehicle to complete the designated route within a specified time limit. The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements.

There're already many teams (just google for "darpa challenge") from colleges and research organizations to companies and corperations like Ford Motor Co., General Motors, and Motorola.

More info:
Google
https://dtsn.darpa.mil/grandc/forum/default.asp

[Jeff Waegelin]

I think it would be great to try, but I really don't know if I could get a team together in time. Now, maybe if some FIRST students in the metro Detroit area would be interested...Let me know if you are, maybe we could get something going.

[Gadget470]

If it's out in LA, I wouldn't be able to get out there. If we were able to organize a metro-detroit race I'd be happy to participate. Regional DARPA like competitions

[Jeff Waegelin]

Well, it's a thought. I still think it would be really cool to try the actual thing, though. I have a killer idea, though I'm not going to share it unless we actually get a crew together.