| 2004 Darpa Grand Challenge |
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The 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge was held in the Mojave Desert region of the United States , along a 150-mile route that follows along the path of Interstate 15 from just before Barstow, California to just past the California - Nevada border in Primm . PRELIMINARY TESTS Prior to the main event in the Mojave Desert , the teams were required to navigate a mile-long obstacle course at California Speedway . Three teams were able to successfully complete the entire course, while three more almost completed it and another half dozen teams completed a portion of the course. After it became clear that the challenge may be over before it even began (with the high failure rate as the teams worked the kinks out of their vehicles), DARPA decided to scrap the initial tests and allow fifteen of the teams to run the race anyway, in the hopes that the many mechanical problems experienced by the teams would be sorted out prior to the main event. THE EVENT Unfortunately, the failures of the vehicles during the preliminary tests were indicative of how the vehicles would perform on the actual course. Only three hours into the event, a mere four vehicles remained operational. The vehicles that failed suffered from a variety of mechanical problems: "stuck brakes, broken axles, rollovers and malfunctioning satellite navigation equipment." Within a few hours, all of the vehicles in the challenge had suffered critical vehicle failures, had been disqualified or had withdrawn. The furthest any of the teams had gotten was the Red Team's 7.4 miles, less than 5% off the full length of the course (the vehicle ( Sandstorm ) went off-course in the tightest hairpin turn and got stuck on the embankment). The next furthest vehicles were those of the SciAutonics II Team, which traversed 6.7 miles before becoming stuck on an embankment, Digital Auto Drive, which drove 6.0 miles before getting stuck on a rock, and the Golem Group, which made it 5.2 miles before getting trapped on a steep hill. THE RESULTS Although the initial race was deemed a failure due to no vehicles even achieving anything close to the goal, DARPA had committed to running the challenge again for as long as Congressional authority allowed (which would have run to 2007 , but the goal was reached in 2005 ). The first Grand Challenge is considered by some to be a success in any event, merely on the basis that it has spurred interest and innovation. The requisite logic dictates that, as long as overall forward progress is being made, the program is a success. In addition to the difficulty many vehicles had with the harsh terrain, a critical problem many initial designs had concerned the inability to handle two distinct problems simultaneously: sensing upcoming obstacles and following the GPS waypoints. DARPA Grand Challenge deputy program manager Tom Strat said, "some of the vehicles were able to follow the GPS waypoints very accurately; but were not able to sense obstacles ahead....Other vehicles were very good at sensing obstacles, but had difficulty following waypoints or were scared of their own shadow, hallucinating obstacles when they weren't there." Several teams announced plans to return again in the years to come, taking the lessons that they learned from the 2004 event and applying them to future designs. EXTERNAL LINKS Official Sites Articles, Photo Sites
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