Darpa Urban Challenge winners: Tartan, Stanford, Victor Tango
| Continental-Sponsored Autonomous Vehicle from Carnegie Mellon Wins DARPA Urban Challenge Automotive Suppliers' Active Safety Sensor Technology Plays Key Role in Victory by Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team VICTORVILLE, Calif., Nov. 4 -- Carnegie Mellon University's Tartan Racing Team, sponsored by Continental Automotive Systems, won the 2007 Defense Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge and the $2 million first place prize in the autonomous vehicle competition, held at the former George Air Force Base November 3 in Victorville, CA. The 2007 Urban Challenge represents the first time that autonomous (driverless) vehicles traversed suburban roads at speed with real traffic represented by 50 moving sedans with human drivers and the 11 race finalists in robot-on-robot competition. The autonomous vehicles in the DARPA Urban Challenge were required to navigate, park, and handle traffic on a 60-mile urban course within a six-hour time limit. The vehicles operated without human guidance and relied only on sensors and computers. The also had to obey traffic laws, merge into moving traffic, avoid obstacles, and negotiate intersections. In addition to the $2 million first prize, $1 million and $500,000 were awarded to the second-and third-place finishers, respectively. "This was an historic day in the push to make vehicles safer and smarter," said Dr. Karl-Thomas Neumann, president Continental Automotive Systems. " We have been saying 'smart cars are coming' and there was clear evidence of that this weekend. The Continental environmental sensors performed flawlessly and helped Tartan Racing's driverless vehicle 'Boss' see the path to victory, moving intelligent vehicle technology forward. To watch these vehicles speed off on their own after months of experimenting was really exhilarating. It was a thrill for us to be part of the first place Tartan Racing Team at the DARPA Urban Challenge and I know what we have learned about sensorics and data fusion will be applied to future passenger vehicles giving drivers' additional tools to improve safety on the road. At Continental we believe the Urban Challenge was not 'pie in the sky' thinking on display. Instead, we view the competition as an incubator for the driving experience of the future. What DARPA seeks to demonstrate we at Continental embrace as our fundamental business culture as we strive to offer our customers ... and 'consumers who are their customers' ... the very best in automotive innovation, performance and reliability." Continental provided to Tartan Racing an array of advanced active safety radar and lidar sensors that help vehicles anticipate trouble before it happens, as well as its General brand Grabber UHP tires with Contiseal. In addition, the tier one automotive supplier provided engineering resources, including an imbedded engineer with expertise in sensor data fusion that like the human brain, enhances computing capability by combining information from different sensors to provide the robot and image of the total traffic environment in order to make appropriate decisions. "Our sponsorship and active involvement with the Urban Challenge underscores our dedication to leveraging active safety technology in the development of intelligent vehicles to change the driving experience for the better-making individual mobility safer, more comfortable and sustainable," added Dr. Neumann. SOURCE Continental Automotive Systems Stanford Racing Team's Volkswagen Diesel Passat Wagon places second in DARPA Urban Challenge VICTORVILLE, Calif., Nov. 3 -- Volkswagen of America, Inc. has announced that Stanford Racing Team's autonomous Passat wagon, "Junior", placed second in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Challenge. "We could not be more pleased with our finish in this tough competition," said Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, executive director, Electronics Research Laboratory, Volkswagen of America, Inc. "Junior performed exceptionally and has helped provide Volkswagen with valuable information as we continue to work on advancing passenger safety technologies and help to bring these technologies to future drivers. "This research is an important step for Volkswagen Research towards the next generation of vehicle electronics, and vehicle safety features that will ultimately benefit our customers," Huhnke continued. "Junior" is one of only 11 vehicles that advanced to the final round of the DARPA Urban Challenge, an autonomous driving challenge where vehicles traverse an urban environment for 60 miles -- merging with moving traffic, navigating traffic circles and busy intersections, avoiding obstacles and finding parking spots. Out of 167 teams who participated in the DARPA "Site Visit" in June and July 2007, 35 were chosen to advance to the National Qualifying Event, held October 26-31. "The last decade has seen the acceptance of numerous electronic systems that improve the driver's ability to handle dynamic driving situations, increase comfort during longer drives or assist parking maneuvers," said Huhnke. "All of these systems are designed primarily to make the task of driving safer, easier and more enjoyable and also safer." "Pushing the concept of driver assistance to its limit, a car will someday be able to drive autonomously, either temporarily or for the full extent of the drive," said Dr. Sebastian Thrun, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Stanford University. "Junior has been an excellent means to test the many aspects of autonomous driving technology; these can be used for immediate applications in more "conventional" driver assistance and safety systems." "Junior" -- a Passat wagon modified by the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto, Calif. in cooperation with Stanford University has been made possible through the team sponsors, Red Bull, Intel, Google, MDV (Mohr Davidow Ventures), NXP and ApplAnix. Volkswagen and Stanford successfully partnered to win the DARPA Grand Challenge in October 2005 with "Stanley", a Volkswagen Touareg TDI. Copyright © 2007, Volkswagen of America DARPA Urban Challenge: Ibeo is the Technological Winner HAMBURG, Germany, November 5 -- The future of safe road traffic belongs to laser technology. This was demonstrated at the race for driverless cars, the DARPA Urban Challenge in the USA. The winning Tartan Racing Team, the second-place Stanford Racing Team and the third-place Victor Tango Team in the finals held on 3 November used Ibeo laser sensors. The high-performance sensors were the racing vehicle's smart eyes. Besides these teams, another 3 additional vehicles in the race used the laser scanners made in Germany. Smart Eyes In order for the driverless cars to be capable of completely automatic driving, they have to be capable of recognizing their surroundings and reacting to the prevailing conditions in fractions of a second. The Ibeo laser scanners serve as smart eyes that guide the vehicles safely through traffic. The laser scanners are designed for driver assistance functions such as pedestrian protection, automatic emergency braking, traffic jam assistance and much more. They are so powerful, however, that they were used by the six teams at the race for autonomous vehicles. The ibeo LUX scanner tested successfully at the DARPA Urban Challenge will enter small scale production already in Fall 2008 and be available to the automobile industry for realizing complex driver assistance functions.
Teams with Ibeo laser sensors:
About Ibeo The company Ibeo Automobile Sensor GmbH, founded in 1998, employs 38 employees in Germany and holds more than seventy patents pertaining to laser scanner technology. The majority shareholder in Ibeo is SICK AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of sensor solutions for industrial applications. SICK AG employs some 4,400 employees at more than forty locations worldwide. The company recorded sales of 646 million EURO in 2006. SOURCE Ibeo Automobile Sensor GmbH
DARPA Urban Challenge 2007
highlights of robot car history EUREKA Prometheus Project (Wiki)
|
| DARPA Urban Challenge 2007 |