The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) intends to conduct a race of autonomous ground vehicles (see “Technical Details” for a definition) from the vicinity of Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV in 2004. A cash prize will be awarded to the winner. The course will feature both on-road and off-road portions and will include extremely rugged, challenging terrain and obstacles. The purpose of the race is to stimulate interest in and encourage the accelerated development of autonomous ground vehicle technologies that could be used by the US military.
Via c o d e r l o g [1], “DARPA Grand Challenge [2]”
Sounds like a fun challenge actually. An autonomous vehicle that needs to travel 300 miles over uncertain terrain and any refueling must be autonomous as well (although each team can place the refueling station along the route before the race begins). And a cool $1,000,000 to the winner.
Unfortunately, unlike Full Metal Challenge [3], the teams do not get funding before hand …
[1] http://cubicmetercrystal.com/log/log-0012.html#22-december-2002
[2] http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/rules.htm