Motor Sports: DARPA finalizes field for Robotic event

Twenty-five teams from a wide variety of backgrounds, organizations and areas of the country have been selected to participate in the Qualification, Inspection and Demonstration (QID) Event for next year's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge, DARPA announced today.

The teams that will participate in the QID were determined based on a rigorous evaluation of technical papers and selected site visits.

DARPA selected the 25 teams from an original group of 86 applicants who submitted technical papers by the October 14, 2003 deadline.

"We have clearly sparked the enthusiasm and innovation that makes America great. The teams comprise students, engineers and inventors, with many working in their home garages," noted Col. Jose Negron, Program Manager for the DARPA Grand Challenge. "These talented participants will bring fresh thinking to autonomous ground vehicle technology for national defense. I am confident that our warfighters will benefit in the coming years from the technologies that these teams will be fielding in the Grand Challenge."

With the final phase in the selection process completed, the 25 invited teams will accelerate their preparations for the QID event, which will take place March 8-12, 2004 at the California Speedway near Los Angeles. Teams will undergo a series of tests that will determine the ability of the systems to autonomously navigate and avoid obstacles. Vehicles will be thoroughly inspected to ensure that they meet safety and performance requirements. At the conclusion of the QID event, DARPA will announce a final field of 20 vehicles to compete at the Grand Challenge Field Test scheduled for Saturday, March 13.

The DARPA Grand Challenge Field Test will cover a course starting near Barstow, Calif. and ending near Las Vegas. The vehicle that is able to traverse the difficult course in the least amount of time within the allotted 10 hours, navigating autonomously and avoiding all obstacles, will receive a prize of $1 million. The pioneering event is the first in a series of Grand Challenge events planned by DARPA.

DARPA is the central research and development organization for the U.S. Department of Defense. The Agency manages and directs basic and applied research and development projects for the Department of Defense, and pursues research and technology where the risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

Assisting with the inaugural DARPA Grand Challenge is SCORE International. Based in Los Angeles, SCORE is helping oversee route development and logistics for the Challenge.

$1 million DARPA Grand Challenge (March 13, 2004). Teams Invited to Participate in the Qualification, Inspection and Demonstration Event, March 8-12 at the California Speedway near Los Angeles.

A. I. Motorvators, Los Angeles, CA Axion Racing, Westlake Village, CA The Blue Team, Berkeley, CA Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics (CIMAR), Gainesville, FL CyberRider, Irvine, CA Digital Auto Drive (Team DAD), Morgan Hill, CA The Golem Group, Santa Monica, CA Insight Racing, Cary, NC Palos Verdes High School RoadWarriors, Palos Verdes Estates, CA Red Team, Pittsburgh, PA Rob Meyer Productions, Tucson, AZ Rover Systems, Santa Ana, CA SciAutonics, Thousand Oaks, CA SciAutonics II, Thousand Oaks, CA Team Arctic Tortoise, Fairbanks, AK Team CajunBot, Lafayette, LA Team Caltech, Pasadena, CA Team ENSCO, Springfield, VA Team LoGHIQ, Walden, NY Team OverBot, Redwood City, CA Team Phantasm, Ballwin, MO Team Spirit of Las Vegas (TSOLV), Edwards, CA Team TerraMax, Oshkosh, WI Terra Engineering, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

For more information, see the official DARPA Grand Challenge web site.