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DARPA: The Qualifying Event is Over
By Dr. Hong Bae
Senior Researcher for GM R&D
The qualifying event is over, and out of 35 semi-finalists, only 11 teams remain. There have been crashes, malfunctions and slow starts, and while everyone has put in a phenomenal effort, we’re proud to have been the first team to qualify among the fortunate few.
While we avoided any major collisions or incidents, our qualifying tests were not without their challenges. On Oct. 29, “Boss” – our Robotic Chevy Tahoe – breezed through the four-way stop with flying colors. But at about 13 minutes into the run, when navigating obstacles placed on the course, Boss got hung up after performing a nicely executed 3-point-turn that allowed it to reverse direction to avoid the roadblock. Upon finding that the way was also blocked in the opposite direction, Boss performed another 3-point-turn and found itself suddenly at an impasse. Having backed up onto a curb, Boss turned its wheels back and forth, alternating between left and right as it tried to determine what to do. Just as the DARPA officials were set to intervene and ask us what we wanted to do, Boss apparently made up its mind, pulled away, and went on to successfully finish the course.
What we discovered later was interesting: in the process of executing the turns, Boss had kicked up a cloud of dust that was detected by its laser sensors and was identified by its computer “brain” as an obstacle. The cloud of dust had, however, drifted into Boss’s blind spot, and programmed for safety, Boss had to assume that the obstacle it had detected was still there, immobilizing the vehicle pending a change in status. Fortunately, Boss had continued moving its wheels back and forth long enough that the vehicle shifted – just enough – to register that the dust cloud had dissipated, allowing Boss to complete its maneuvers. We made sure to adjust the sensitivity of the sensors to help compensate and to ensure we’re not hampered by any future dust-ups.
On Oct. 30, Boss was asked to do merging and yielding tests again by DARPA. Boss was sailing through beautifully when DARPA suddenly paused Boss 10 minutes into the qualification test. Every team member was worried since the course usually takes 30 minutes to complete, and DARPA pauses robots when it sees something it does not like. However, it was nothing to worry about. Apparently, DARPA officials liked Boss’ performance so much they decided to stop the test only after 10 minutes. Subsequent tests were canceled, implying that Boss has demonstrated sufficient intelligence and safe driving skills, and would be in the final race.
With the qualifying event out of the way, we’re the first official finalist. On Nov. 1, DARPA announced 10 other teams have qualified – Stanford; Cornell; Ben Franklin (Penn); Victor Tango (Virginia Tech); CarOLO (Caroline, NY), MIT, Honeywell/Intelligent Vehicle Solutions (Troy, Mich.), AnnieWay (Palo Alto, Calif.); Oshkosh Truck (Oshkosh, Wisc.); University of Central Florida. Twenty-four teams have been eliminated.
We’re ready to go and looking forward to the Urban Challenge Final Event, which will take place Nov. 3.
To see some of the action for yourself, check out this YouTube video.
Posted by Editor on November 2, 2007 5:20 PM
