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Darpa - Grand Challenge

Introduction:

With the Grand Challenge the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) continues with its policy of pursuing research and technology where the risk and payoff are both very high and where success may provide dramatic advances for traditional military roles and missions.

In the words of DARPA Director Anthony Tether; "DARPA has always attracted people who can look at problems differently and find creative ways to solve them, the Grand Challenge creates a way for us to reach out and find people who will help us advance the development of autonomous robotic ground vehicle technology".

The DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test that requires autonomous robotic ground vehicles to successfully navigate a course: "It was an important step to have autonomous ground vehicles that can navigate and drive across open and difficult terrain from city to city. But the next big leap will be an autonomous vehicle that can navigate and operate in traffic, a far more complex challenge for a 'robotic' driver. So we are very excited to be moving from the desert to the city with our Urban Challenge".

The course will be nominally 60 miles in total distance, with a time objective of 6 hours. Prior to the Grand Challenge main event, there is a qualification, inspection and demonstration (QID) event. Teams undergo a series of tests to determine the ability of the systems to autonomously navigate and avoid obstacles, as well as thorough inspections to ensure that they meet safety and performance requirements. At the conclusion of the QID event DARPA announces the final field of teams that will compete in the Grand Challenge. DARPA awards a cash prize of $2 million to the winner - the team that most quickly completes the course in less than the 6-hour time limit. If no teams finish, no prize is awarded.

 

Objective:

The DARPA Grand Challenge was created in response to a Congressional and DoD mandate, DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test intended to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles and promote innovative technical approaches that will enable the autonomous operation of unmanned ground combat vehicles (National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, Congress mandated in Section 220 that "It shall be a goal of the Armed Forces to achieve the fielding of unmanned, remotely controlled technology such that... by 2015, one-third of the operational ground combat vehicles are unmanned"). These autonomous ground vehicles will navigate from point to point in an intelligent manner to avoid or accommodate obstacles including nearby vehicles and other impediments. The DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test of autonomous ground vehicles over realistic terrain and sets specific performance goals for distance and speed. It draws widespread attention to the technology issues associated with autonomous vehicles and motivates entrants to overcome the obstacles to the realization of truly robust autonomous ground vehicles. The event challenges the most capable and innovative companies, institutions, and entrepreneurs in the United States and from around the world to produce breakthroughs in capability and performance.

The Grand Challenge brings together individuals and organizations from industry, the R&D community, government, the armed services, academia, students, backyard inventors, and automotive enthusiasts in the pursuit of a technological challenge. DARPA's mission is to leverage ingenuity and research to develop transformational technologies that give armed forces a decisive edge.

The objective of this program is safe and correct autonomous driving capability in traffic at 20 mph.  To do this, vehicles will demonstrate the following capabilities:

• Complete a mission defined by an ordered series of checkpoints in a complex route network. The vehicle will have 5 minutes to process a mission description before attempting the course.
• Interpret static lane markings (e.g., white and yellow lines) provided with the route network definition file and behave in accordance with applicable traffic laws and conventions. DARPA's intent is for the RNDF lane boundary descriptors to match the physical lane markings on the ground.  DARPA cannot ensure that this will be the case in all areas, and as such the RNDF shall take precedence over the physical ground markings in conflicting areas.
• Exhibit context-dependent speed control to ensure safe operation, including adherence to speed limits.
• Exhibit safe-following behaviour when approaching other vehicles from behind in a traffic lane.  This includes maintaining a safe-following distance.
• Exhibit safe check-and-go behaviour when pulling around a stopped vehicle, pulling out of parking spot, moving through intersections, and in situations where collision is possible.
• Stay on the road and in a legal and appropriate travel lane while en route, including around sharp turns, through intersections, and while passing.  The route network definition file will specify the GPS coordinates of the stop signs.  The RNDF specifies the location of stop lines on the ground. On paved areas, each stop line will be represented by a painted stop line on the pavement. Physical stop signs, however, may or may not be present at the stop line locations.
• Navigate safely in areas where GPS signals are partially or entirely blocked.
• Follow paved and unpaved roads and stay in lane with very sparse or low accuracy GPS waypoints.
• Change lanes safely when legal and appropriate, such as when passing a vehicle or entering an opposing traffic lane to pass a stopped vehicle.  Vehicles must not pass other vehicles queued at an intersection.
• Merge safely with traffic moving in one or more lanes after stopping at an intersection.
• Pull across one lane of moving traffic to merge with moving traffic in the opposing lane.
• Stop safely within 1 meter of the stop line at a stop sign intersection and proceed without excessive delay (less than 10 seconds) according to intersection precedence rules.
• Exhibit proper queue behaviour at an intersection, including stopping at a safe distance from other vehicles and stop-and-go procession to the stop line without excessive delay.
• Navigate toward a destination in a large, open area where minimal or no GPS points are provided, as in loading dock areas or parking lots. These areas may contain fixed obstacles such as parked vehicles and moving obstacles including other vehicles.
• Safely pull into and back out of a specified parking space in a parking lot.
• Safely execute one or more three-point turning manoeuvres to do an U-turn.
• Dynamically re-plan and execute the route to a destination if the primary route is blocked or impassable.

The following behaviours or capabilities are outside the scope of this program:

• Recognition of external traffic signals such as traffic lights and stop signs, through the use of sensors.
• Recognition of pedestrians and pedestrian avoidance.
• Behaviours necessary for highway driving such as high speed passing or high speed merge at an onramp. Speed limits for the Urban Challenge will be 30 mph or less.
• Driving in difficult off-road terrain is outside the scope of the program. Off-road navigation in an unpaved area, travel along roads with potholes, and travel along a dirt road are within scope.

 

History:

Grand Challenge 2004
The Grand Challenge 2004 field test of autonomous ground vehicles ran from Barstow, California to Primm, Nevada offered a $1 million prize. From the qualifying round at the California Speedway, 15 finalists emerged to attempt the Grand Challenge. However, the prize went unclaimed as no vehicles were able to complete the difficult desert route.

Grand Challenge 2005
The Grand Challenge 2005 was held on October 8, 2005 in the desert Southwest. The Stanford Racing Team won the $2 million prize with the winning time of 6 hours, 53 minutes. A total of five teams completed the Grand Challenge course which was 132 miles over desert terrain

 

Participants:

The first official public event for the Grand Challenge came on February 22, 2003, when nearly 500 prospective participants gathered at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles for a competitor’s conference. Later on, 106 teams submitted applications expressing their interest. Out of that initial group of applicants, 86 submitted technical papers by the October 14, 2003 deadline. After a rigorous evaluation of technical papers and select site visits, DARPA selected the final field of 25 teams. The Participants Conference was held in Anaheim, California on August 14, 2004.

In the Grand Challenge 2005, over 550 individuals from 42 states and 7 countries reviewed the preliminary rules, timetable for deadlines, and the qualification process. At the end, there were 23 finalists among 195 teams from 36 states and four foreign countries. These teams advanced to the final event by series of rigorous tests designed to assess their capability of completing the desert course. Four of them completed the course before the 10 hour limit. The first four robots entered the history books as being the first ground vehicle robots to travel a great distance at a relatively high speed within a specified time frame. The vehicle that completed the course in the shortest time was "Stanley" (Stanford racing team), with an average speed over the 131.6 mile desert course of 19.1mph.

 

Further information:

For more information about this competition, visit the official website. The rules can be download here.

 

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