Stanford Wins Desert Race by a Microchip
PRIMM, Nev. — Stanford University's robot racing team Sunday was declared the winner of $2 million in the Defense Department's Grand Challenge race to develop an autonomous vehicle that could become a model for battlefield robots.
The team's technology-laden robotic vehicle, a converted Volkswagen sport utility vehicle named Stanley, navigated a 131-mile course in the southern Nevada desert in 6 hours, 53 minutes and 58 seconds, beating the second-place finisher, Carnegie Mellon University's Sandstorm Humvee, by about 11 minutes.
The race was Saturday, but a winner was not declared until Sunday, after race judges computed the results.
"This was absolutely incredible," said Anthony Tether, head of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, which sponsored the race. Tether presented a giant facsimile of a check to the blue-shirted Stanford team, which cheered and poured champagne over one another.
"This has been mind-blowing," said Stanford team leader Sebastian Thrun as hundreds of spectators near this small gambling city on the California border cheered. Thrun saved his champagne to pour over Stanley, whose future probably will be in a museum in Germany, the home of team sponsor Volkswagen.
Thrun said the technology used in Stanley could be adapted to passenger cars, potentially saving thousands of lives each year.
DARPA's goal when it opened the competition in 2004 was to encourage development of vehicles that could operate autonomously in war zones, meeting a congressional mandate that 30% of the military's vehicle fleet be robots by 2015.
The technology of robotic vehicles "is no longer a toy," Tether said. Stanley's average speed of 19.1 mph is in the range that military convoys travel, he said. Several of the teams have appointments scheduled with the Army in coming weeks, Tether said.
In the first competition last year, which offered a $1-million prize, no vehicle went as far as eight miles. This time, all but three of the 23 finalists went farther.
Five teams completed the course, which wound over cattle grates, through tunnels under Interstate 15 and into the Lucy Gray Mountains.
"These vehicles haven't just achieved world records, they've made history," Tether said.
Placing third in the competition was Carnegie Mellon's second vehicle, a Humvee named Highlander, which crossed the line in 7 hours and 14 minutes. The other two vehicles completing the course were the Gray Team of Metairie, La., which finished in 7 hours and 30 minutes, and Team TerraMax.
