Oh
DARPA, how we love thee, let us count the ways. Your
first Grand Challenge brought us
giggles and
guffaws as those first-gen automonous bots failed to even complete the course.
Grand Challenge 2005
returned to the desert with oohs and ahhs with four vehicles actually completing the rugged, 132-mile unmanned course
in less than 10-hours. Now, DARPA presents the third and best event yet, the Urban Challenge! This time around, DARPA
will award prizes to the top three ($2M, $500k, and $250k respectively) autonomous ground vehicles that safely complete
a 60-mile urban course on a simulated military supply mission (read: not likely to be blowing things up) in under
6-hours. The main event is schedule for November 3, 2007 with several qualifying events to be held in the run-up. And
yeah, you can expect a full-on grudge-match between 2005's winning
Stanford team and runners-up Carnegie
Mellon (owners of the
Crusher) who both
announced participation in what was hopefully a sweaty, WWF-like expletive-ridden shout-off with folding chairs
a-flyin'. [Warning: PDF link]
[Via
MSNBC,
Thanks
William]