jawfish

Darpa Grand Challenge 2005 Update
john posted in technologies on October 2nd, 2005

see Jawfish Grand Challenge for general details.
all images by teams

The qualifying event will be held from September 27 – October 5 at the racetrack in Fontana California. The race itself will be held just after the qualifying on October 7 & 8, starting near Las Vegas Nevada. 43 entrants made the cut to get to the qualifiers, and 20 will go on to the race. The race map will only be announced 2 hours before the start to force them to use sensors exclusively and not rely on pre-testing the course or highly-detailed terrain mapping.

Last year’s best finisher Carnegie Mellon is mounting two serious contenders.

The lone high school entry from Palos Verdes ( LA area) is back. There are some commercial entries, but they are not necessarily the best prepared.

One two wheeled entry, the ghostrider is back in much better form. There is a giant truck, TerraMax,

and a prototype 6-wheel articulated platform called Terrahawk.

The sentimental favorite would be a swamp buggy from Lafayette Louisiana, Cajunbot.

Sadly a qualifying entry from an insurance agency in Metairie LA, was forced to move their operation to Baton Rouge after the storm, and is assumed to be very busy just now. There is an off-road cart from Virginia Tech, one of a number of converted utility vehicles, and an entry called Golem running a an battered Chevy pickup.

Some entries are self-funded, and one wears its religion-on-its-sleeve, an SUV entry from Indiana.
But is it Intelligent Design? And no fair if Jesus is their navigator.

Another prototype looks like a mini airstream and runs Java.
Using Java means it will run everywhere but slowly.

There are some off-road racer buggies, the platform I would have chosen, Ensco and Cyberrider and a so-called light-strike military vehicle from Cornell.

A So Cal entry with a Rat Fink decal, Aimotorvators

showing a proper understanding of desert racing, naked headers, and Kustom Kulture style, and another entry with actual Car Girls AxionRacing.

There is an off-road kart from Oregon, another good choice for a platform, and a lone Apple-powered Toureg Team Banzai.

Banzai’s user interface will be really really good, but there’s no word yet on the tranluscent tangerine plastic.

The web sites and announcements make it clear that this year far more testing has been done by the teams. These vehicles have actually completed initial closed-course testing, so all of them have the ability to follow a course without human intervention, sometimes. Whether any of them can complete the race is anybody’s guess, but even making it halfway would be a considerable success.