SciAutonics among Semi-Finalists in DARPA Grand Challenge!

As indicated earlier, DARPA announced on 9. August 2007 the 36 semi-finalists, which were selected after site visits to each of the teams. And, our team SciAutonics is among them!

Congratulations to the team, and best wishes for the remaining work!

I remember what a hard struggle this was in preparation for the first Grand Challenge in 2004...

Currently I am uploading photos about the DARPA Grand Challenge 2004 preparations from my large archive onto Flickr, placing them into a collection of several sets. The original RASCAL which is depicted in these pictures will no longer run; instead the team has now a more conventional vehicle, suitable for the anticipated urban scenario near Victorville.

Another Visit in Vienna, November 2005

To celebrate the achievements in the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005, the Austrian company ARC Seibersdorf hosted a "Special Event" at their location in the Tech Gate Vienna and invited me to give a talk there on the events that led to the participation of ARC Seibersdorf in our Team SciAutonics.

The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

The DARPA Grand Challenge is a competition of autonomous ground vehicles. A prize of $2 Million was awarded to the team who would build a vehicle that could drive through a given route through the desert - without any driver or any remote control. The first Grand Challenge had taken place in March 2004, and on October 8 the 2nd comptetition was organized.

Our team SciAutonics, managed by team leader John Porter, participated in 2005 for the second time with the vehicle RASCAL. The team improved the performance of RASCAL by a factor of more than 20: instead of 0.75 miles in 2004, the vehicle this year drove a stunning distance of 16 miles.

The winner of this competition was the team from Stanford University, under the leadership of Prof. Sebastian Thrun. Congratulations to their remarkable achievement!

SciAutonics, LLC, as a company will continue to work in the autonomous vehicle market.