We’ve arrived at the site of the National Qualification Event in Victorville, CA. We look forward to opening ceremonies tomorrow. Meanwhile, we’re unpacking our vehicle, which has arrived safely after being trucked across the country. We’ll be posting updates from our Urban Challenge Blog. Once the NQE gets underway, DARPA will be hosting a webcast from the official DARPA Urban Challenge website.
Category Archives: Urban Challenge
Site Visit – Summary
We had our site visit on this past Monday afternoon, July 9th, from 2 to 6 pm. Unfortunately, we did not perform as well as we expected. Various problems that had not been encountered during previous testing plagued us throughout the afternoon. As the hours wore on and the 90+ degree heat wore us out, we continued to battle these unforseen issues.
At the end of the day, we were able to complete about 50% of each of the runs. We successfully demonstrated most of the required behaviors, including staying in our lane, stopping at a stop line, passing a parked car and obeying mission parameters. For the times when our system worked properly, our performance was very consistent.
We will find out the final results of our site visit evaluation, which is also based on our Technical Paper, on August 10.
All of the Princeton University Urban Challenge Team members would like to extend hearty thanks to all of the family, friends and supporters who showed up to cheer us along at this big milestone in our project. In addition, PAVE gratefully acknowledges the FMC corporation for allowing us to use their facilities for our site visit.
Also, many thanks to the various media crews that have covered our conitnuing efforts in the Urban Challenge. Recent additions to our publicity page include Kevin Coughlin’s article in the Newark Star-Ledger, and news segments by Michelle Won of WZBN-TV and Patrick Regan of NJN News.
Final Preparations
Due to some unforeseen construction, we have had to find a new location for our site visit. Thankfully, the FMC Corporation is allowing us to use a portion of their Chemical Research and Development Center in Princeton, NJ for our site visit and preceding testing. We greatly appreciate their generosity and support of our project.
Our site visit is scheduled for 2pm – 6pm on Monday, July 9th. More information is availalble from our events page.
We are also excited to announce that Gladiator Technologies Inc. is the newest addition to our growing list of team sponsors. We look forward to working with Gladiator and their products in the Urban Challenge.
Site Visit
PAVE is proud to announce that we have been accepted by DARPA to have a site-visit evaluation. The site-visit is the next stage in the multi-step qualification process leading up to the final race on November 3, 2007. Teams that pass the site-visit will move on to the two-part National Qualifying Event (NQE), which will be held in late October, 2007. 52 other teams were also granted site-visits. The official DARPA press release is available here.
The site-visit will take place in mid- to late- June. We will release the actual date once it is confirmed. Our site-visit demonstration will be open to the public. Please contact us if you would be interested in attending.
A Visit from our Neighbors
On tuesday afternoon, April 24, we were happy to welcome Mike Selzler to PAVE for a visit. Mike is the leader of team AutoTrek, in nearby Moorestown, NJ. He was kind enough to bring along their autonomous vehicle, which has been entered in both the 2005 and 2007 DARPA Challenges.
(l to r) Prospect Eleven, PAVE’s current vehicle and AutoTrek’s Ford Bronco
We took this opportunity discuss our respective approaches for the upcoming challenge. We also enjoyed how neat it was to have three autonomous vehicles in one place!
Mike Selzler (r) and some of the PAVE team, with our autonomous vehicles.
We have begun to enhance the technical section of our Urban Challenge approach. Check out our latest update on sensing. Stay tuned for further updates.
DARPA Video Submission
PAVE is pleased to announce that we have submitted our Video Demonstration to DARPA. We will find out on May 10th whether we have been accepted to the next phase of the competition – a site visit evaulation in June or July. Feel free to view our video here:
We have continued to receive press coverage. Check out some recent articles in The Princeton Packet as well as Princeton’s own E-Quad News Blog. We were also featured in a video clip, at TVJersey.com.
Ford Donates Vehicle to PAVE
Ford Motor Company recently agreed to donate a vehicle to Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering for use in the DARPA Urban Challenge. Today PAVE took delivery of the vehicle, a 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid. Our entrant in the 2005 Grand Challenge, Prospect Eleven, was a 2005 GMC Canyon pickup truck. Since the challenge we’ve used Prospect Eleven as a testbed for our Urban Challenge work.
In the coming weeks we’ll be modifying the Escape for autonomous control, after which we’ll move our sensors and servers into it. Our deepest thanks to Ford, especially Suzanne Farran, Chris Baker, Christian Wenk, Greg Stevens, and Brad Simmons, without whose hard work and perseverance this relationship wouldn’t have been possible.
DARPA Reinstates Prizes
In a recent press release DARPA announced that monetary prizes for the top finishers have returned. In the Urban Challenge, the top three finishers will receive $2 million, $1 million, and $500,000 respectively. Unfortunately, the incremental milestone prizes for Track B teams have not been reinstated. We’re looking forward to the competition!
78 Teams Enter on Track B
DARPA received applications from 78 teams for Track B, including PAVE, bringing the total number of entrants in the Urban Challenge to 89. Though the pool is slightly smaller than for the 2005 Grand Challenge, we look forward to the same intense competition and outstanding designs. Best of luck!
Eleven Teams Receive Track A Grants, Prize Authority Revoked
DARPA has selected eleven teams to receive grants of up to $1M and compete in Track A of the Urban Challenge. In addition, Congress voted not to extend DARPA’s prize authority, so the winners of the Urban Challenge will instead receive ceremonial trophies.
PAVE will be competing in the Urban Challenge on Track B. We will have to go through the same multi-step qualification process as the Track A teams, but will not compete directly with them until the Final Event. The application deadline for Track B is October 13th. We are very curious to see what effect the lack of prize money will have on the number of teams that enter.
Congratulations to all of the Track A teams and best of luck – PAVE will see you at the start line!