Meet BOB, Caltech's entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge

[Kevin Watson]

Meet BOB, Caltech's entry into the DARPA Grand Challenge. This picture was taken yesterday during testing at one of Santa Anita's vast parking lots. We spent much of the day establishing and documenting various protocols for stuff like remotly shutting-down the vehicle in an emergency. At the end of the day, we demonstrated that we could autonomously avoid obstacles using LIDAR. Today we hope to demonstrate autonomous GPS way-point following with obstacle avoidance using stereo vision and LIDAR.

-Kevin

[sanddrag]

Do you know exactly where the starting point will be? All I could find was that it will be in Fontana, CA. I'd really like to go to the start and see all these cars take off.

[Kevin Watson]

California Speedway, in Fontana, is where the pre-race festivities will take place the day before the race. We've heard that the race, to be held on March 13th, 2004, will start somewhere near Barstow, CA. DARPA is keeping tight-lipped about the race course.

-Kevin

[miketwalker]

Are they planning on following the vehicles during the race, because I'd love to watch how these vehicles perform, do you have any videos of testing for your vehicle also? Best of luck to you guys.

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by miketwalker

Are they planning on following the vehicles during the race, because I'd love to watch how these vehicles perform,...

Yes, DARPA will have at least one chase vehicle for each of the twenty entries. If something goes wrong, the chase team can remotely "pause" or completely disable the vehicle. We integrated DARPA's "e-stop" hardware Friday night and partially tested it yesterday.

Originally Posted by miketwalker

do you have any videos of testing for your vehicle also? Best of luck to you guys.

Yes, we've been taping our tests. I'll try to get a sample to post. We're also being videotaped by a few different outside broadcast companies. For the past week, a crew from the Japanese television network NHK has been following us around (our own reality TV series ), so I imagine some of the team's exploits will show-up on TV too.

There are a few more photos here

-Kevin

[KenWittlief]

I hope you realize that once that thing hits 88mph it will instantaiously be transported back to the year 1955!

btw - its pretty cool that you named it after the horse in the jingle-bells song. Are you going to put bells on this BOB's tail too?

[dlavery]

One of the other leading contenders for The DARPA Grand Challege Is Red Team Racing, led by Dr. Red Whittaker at Carnegie Mellon University. Their new web site has just gone public, and it makes for some interesting reading.

Given their past history with projects like "No Hands Across America" and their Reactive System For Off-Road Driving, it will be real interesting to see them go head-to-head with the Caltech team (and the rest of the pack).

But I have to admit to a little bit of bias in favor of Team Virginia Tech

Here are the teams that have made it so far. Are there any others that folks are following closely?

-dave

------------------------------

13 days to go!!!

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

I hope you realize that once that thing hits 88mph it will instantaiously be transported back to the year 1955!

Hey, how did you know we have a flux capacitor?

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

btw - its pretty cool that you named it after the horse in the jingle-bells song. Are you going to put bells on this BOB's tail too?

Um, actually we aren't that clever. The vehicle is named Bob because the three letters of it's license plate are "BOB" .

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by dlavery

One of the other leading contenders for The DARPA Grand Challege Is Red Team Racing, led by Dr. Red Whittaker at Carnegie Mellon University. Their new web site has just gone public, and it makes for some interesting reading.

Given their past history with projects like "No Hands Across America" and their Reactive System For Off-Road Driving, it will be real interesting to see them go head-to-head with the Caltech team (and the rest of the pack).

[TRASH-TALK] Yeah, we're not too worried about Red. After all, we demonstrated autonomous way-point following two months before they even got their humvee started. [/TRASH-TALK]

The team I fear most is the Palos Verdes High School RoadWarriors. While it would be very cool if they beat us, I wouldn't be able to go back to work for fear of all of the ribbing I'd get .

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Kevin Watson

[TRASH-TALK] Yeah, we're not too worried about Red. After all, we demonstrated autonomous way-point following two months before they even got their humvee started. [/TRASH-TALK]

The team I fear most is the Palos Verdes High School RoadWarriors. While it would be very cool if they beat us, I wouldn't be able to go back to work for fear of all of the ribbing I'd get .

Hmm - sounds like a side-bet of a dozen Krispy Kremes may be in order here. We can get Amanda M to hold them (for six months until they get really stale...).

-dave

----------------------


12 days to go!!!

[Kevin Watson]

Dave,

Originally Posted by dlavery

Hmm - sounds like a side-bet of a dozen Krispy Kremes may be in order here. We can get Amanda M to hold them (for six months until they get really stale...)

You're on, dude. I'll put-up a big package of double-stuff Oreos (which, through the miracles of modern chemistry, never go stale).

-Kevin

[Kevin A]

WOW
That is soo awsome! My team wasnt accepted after we were conditionally accepted, so i know how much time and effort you put into this. We got the hardware done, but never got to sensors...
I was able to accept the fact that we werent entered...up until now...

[echos]

BOB = Battery Operated Buggy

Great work, just hope you don't crash it.

[Adam Y.]

Um, actually we aren't that clever. The vehicle is named Bob because the three letters of it's license plate are "BOB"

Oo man. I hope Bob is happy with you guys taking his car. Good luck.

[Duke 13370]

Originally Posted by Kevin Watson

You're on, dude. I'll put-up a big package of double-stuff Oreos (which, through the miracles of modern chemistry, never go stale).

-Kevin

Oh, they can go stale. just leave 'em under you bed for a couple months, and *BAM* you got stale oreo's.

they didn't taste bad, they were just a bit limp and orange. I thought they were holloween oreo's but i'm not sure...

Oh yeah, looks really cool, good luck!