The Ohio State University-Autonomous City Transport team, OSU-ACT, today was selected as a semifinalist in the U.S. Department of Defense autonomous vehicle competition, the Urban Challenge.
OSU-ACT is among 36 teams who qualified for the next stage of the competition, which is hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support research and technology to improve military missions.
Competitors in the Urban Challenge have developed fully autonomous ground vehicles that — without any human intervention — must conduct simulated military supply missions safely and effectively in a mock urban area. OSU-ACT will now participate in the Oct. 26-31 National Qualification Event in Victorville, Calif., at the site of the former George Air Force Base. DARPA selected the location because its network of urban roads best simulate the type of terrain American forces operate in when deployed overseas.
The final competition, for which only 20 of the remaining teams will qualify, will take place at the same location on Nov. 3. DARPA will award $2 million, $1 million and $500,000 prizes to the top three finishers that complete the course within the six-hour time limit.
In the Nov. 3 event, the robotic vehicles will attempt to complete a 60-mile course through traffic, operating under their own computer-based control. To succeed, the vehicles must operate entirely autonomously and obey California traffic laws while performing maneuvers such as merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles and avoiding moving obstacles. Research universities and engineering schools, automobile manufacturers and suppliers, and defense contractors are among the participants.
Ohio State’s OSU-ACT team, which is using a hybrid SUV in the competition, started the contest among a field of 89 entrants that was narrowed to 53 before the 36 semifinalists were announced today.
“The Ohio State College of Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been in the forefront of research on autonomous cars for about 40 years,” says team leader Umit Ozguner, professor of electrical and computer engineering. The department’s strength in control science, as well as mapping expertise from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Geodetic Science, has produced an extremely strong team for the DARPA competition, Ozguner said. The team also has benefited from the assistance of facilities including the Center for Automotive Research and the Transportation Research Center.
“This year, as in previous years, we are also supported by contributions from universities from overseas, providing a unique collaborative environment,” Ozguner added.
Ohio State’s team has a record of success in the DARPA Challenge. In October 2005, the Ohio State College of Engineering team finished in 10th place in the competition. The Desert Buckeyes’ ION vehicle traveled 29 miles of the 131.6-mile Mojave Desert course near Primm, Nev. It successfully negotiated obstacles and a series of narrow roads and sharp turns. In March 2004, the first year for the DARPA Challenge, in which fully autonomous ground vehicles traveled through a desert course between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Ohio State supported an Oshkosh Truck vehicle called TerraMax. None of the teams completed the course that year, but TerraMax went the sixth farthest of the dozen finalists.
“Our faculty, staff and students have long contributed to pushing new frontiers, starting with the automated highway systems work of professor Robert Fenton in the late 1960s through the early 1980s, and through the two DARPA Grand Challenges of 2004 and 2005 where we always had ‘top 10’ vehicles,” Ozguner said. “We appreciate the support of the College of Engineering in this endeavor, which not only aids in the advancement of research excellence but also leads to important technological products in Ohio and provides a tremendous educational advantage for the education of our students.”For details about the OSU-ACT team, visit its Web site at www.ece.osu.edu/osuact. A video clip of the OSU-ACT team vehicle in action is available at http://www.ece.osu.edu/osuact/gallery_video.html; click on “DARPA Video Demonstration 11 April 2007.” For information about the DARPA Urban Challenge, visit www.darpa.mil/GrandChallenge.
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News Editors: Contacts for the DARPA Grand Challenge are Johanna Spangenberg Jones (202) 289-2001, jjones@stratacomm.net or Jan Walker (703) 696-2404, jan.walker@darpa.mil. For details about the OSU-ACT team, contact professor Umit Ozguner, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, (614) 292-5940 or umit@ece.osu.edu.
Joan Slattery Wall, 614-292-4064, wall.107@osu.edu Aug. 9 , 2007
