The Observer, November 10, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 10
Case enters DARPA challenge
click to enlarge
Talking on a cell phone, eating a bowl of pasta, and reading a book are dangerous activities for a morning commute now, but entrants in the Urban Challenge could make these more ordinary occurrences.
One such entrant is here on campus. Case students and faculty will be participating in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge, to take place in California in November 2007.
The Grand Challenge project, which began in 2004, is an effort to draw attention to autonomous vehicles, which could eliminate the need for human involvement in certain dangerous military situations.
Technology developed through this challenge could also be put to use in the future to create autonomous cars for everyday use.
This incarnation of the challenge includes a dynamic element, putting the autonomous vehicles in an urban environment and requiring that the vehicles be able to navigate around obstacles, such as parked cars, while following traffic laws.
The car must also be able to park in specified parking spots and execute three-point turns, among other things.
Cars will have six hours to complete the 60-mile course using a GPS system to locate checkpoints along the route.
Team Case, working with ENSCO, Inc., has over 50 members working on Dexter, ENSCO's entrant into the previous challenge.
The team will work to modify Dexter, which originally competed in the 2005 Grand Challenge desert race, to be able to handle the challenge of an urban environment.
Dexter uses several different kinds of sensors to monitor itself and its surroundings, including GPS, radar, LIDAR (a radar-like sensor using lasers), video and infrared cameras, and a gyroscope.
The gyroscope is useful as a backup to GPS, which is often unreliable in the city, according to Farnsworth. The gyroscope helps measure the acceleration of the vehicle and uses that information to judge the vehicle's position relative to its last known GPS coordinates.
Although past DARPA challenges have offered large monetary prizes as incentive, recent changes in legislation mean that Team Case will be competing simply for a trophy and bragging rights.
Project leaders for the challenge are Wyatt Newman, a professor in the EECS department, and Roger Quinn from the MAE department.
Team Case is currently seeking sponsors and contributions to aid its endeavor. More information is available at http://urbanchallenge.cwru.edu.
