"Saturday—Virginia Tech's team takes third place and $500,000 in DARPA Urban Challenge Virginia Tech's team, VictorTango, won third place and the $500,000 prize in the DARPA Urban Challenge. On Saturday, Nov. 3, during the competition held outside Victorville, Calif., the Virginia Tech autonomous vehicle, Odin, completed the 60-mile course - with no human intervention allowed past the starting line - in under six hours. Odin crossed the finish line just behind the first place entry from Carnegie Mellon University and the second place entry from Stanford University.
Thursday—VictorTango, the Virginia Tech Urban Challenge team, is one of only 11 out of 35 teams to succeed in the competition's qualifying rounds and move on to the final event on Saturday, Nov. 3, DARPA Director Tony Tether announced on Thursday. VictorTango's autonomous vehicle, Odin, will be the only entry representing a Virginia team in the finals. Finalists include teams from Stanford University, which won the $2 million first prize in DARPA's 2005 Grand Challenge, and Carnegie Mellon University, which placed second and third in 2005.
October 30, 2007—On Tuesday, the fourth day of the Urban Challenge qualifying rounds in Victorville, DARPA Director Tony Tether informed VictorTango that they were one of four teams that could "stand down" from the test runs - because they've already done well enough to qualify for the final event on Saturday. The three other teams in the first batch selected for the final event represent Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, and Stanford universities. In the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, Stanford placed first and Carnegie Mellon came in second and third.
<b>VictorTango aims to win $2 million with an SUV that thinks like a driver</b> October 26, 2007
Virginia Tech's entry in DARPA's Urban Challenge is competing in the national qualifying rounds, thanks in part to a custom-designed drive-by-wire control system and unique navigation software that makes the vehicle's driving decisions almost human.
"VictorTango," a team of Virginia Tech engineering and geography students, is among 35 semi-finalists selected by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to vie for the $2 million Urban Challenge prize. Qualifying rounds begin Friday, Oct. 26 at the former George Air Force Base in Victorville, Calif., and the final event takes place on Saturday, Nov. 3.
Urban Challenge teams are attempting to develop vehicles that can maneuver a 60-mile course of simulated military supply missions in less than six hours—with no human intervention allowed past the starting line. The vehicles will have to obey California traffic laws, merge into moving traffic, navigate traffic circles, negotiate intersections, and avoid a variety of obstacles.
VictorTango has converted two Escape hybrids donated by Ford Motor Co. into autonomous vehicles by outfitting them with a "drive-by-wire" system, a powerful computer system, laser scanners, cameras, and a GPS (global positioning system), said Patrick Currier, a mechanical engineering (ME) graduate student. The students dubbed the vehicles "Odin" after the chief god in Norse mythology.
"The drive-by-wire system allows the computers to control the throttle, brake, steering, and shifting and to drive the vehicle," Currier said. "This system was custom developed by the team and is unique in that it is completely hidden from view, enabling Odin to retain full passenger capabilities."
TORC Technologies LLC, a company in Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center founded by alumni of the university's robotics program, has worked with VictorTango to develop the software for the vehicle's computer system.
VictorTango and TORC developed Odin's sophisticated navigational software, which is modeled on human behavior. "To successfully navigate in an urban environment, Odin processes all of the sensor information, classifies the situation, and then chooses a behavior, such as passing another vehicle, staying in the lane, or parking," Currier explained.
This "human-like" system makes Odin capable of choosing the best course out of millions of possible courses, he said.
The team has outfitted Odin with four computers that perform specialized sensor processing and hardware interface tasks and two powerful servers that provide the primary computing power.
To view videos of Odin in action and to follow the team's blog from the competition in Victorville, visit http://www.victortango.org]http://www.victortango.org. To find the videos, click on "Multimedia."
To follow the DARPA Urban Challenge qualifying rounds and the final event on Nov. 3, visit http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge]http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge."
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