Race Log
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March 10th, 2008: |
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| November 2nd: Our run in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge has come to an end. Of the 35 semi-finalist only 11 teams have been selected to go on to the final round. We came close but unfortunately we did not pull it all together in time to make the final cut. All in all it has been another fantastic experience and we are very excited and in good shape to take the vehicle to the next level once we get back home. We congratulate all the teams that made it and look forward to cheering them on tomorrow morning. You can watch the race live here: |
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October 26th: |
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| October 25th: The DARPA Song |
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| October 24th: Today we checked into the NQE site and received the RNDF's for NQE and for the E-Stop test. The data did not line up perfectly with the image data but Drew and Danielle are working on it. The NQE course is smaller than expected but has a few challenges. It also looks like they are planning some heavy duty traffic with about 35 traffic vehicles practicing on the course today. In one area, it looks like they will run several cars around a loop continuously with little spacing while we loop around and have to merge into the circle with them over and over. Their are only about 5 parking spot defined and it looks to be much easier than we have been practicing although they could add some obstacles or moving vehicles. It also looks like the main event will be much more difficult and adds a potential off road segment with fence on one side and cliff on the other. |
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| October 23rd We met with the local Toyota dealer and they took us to the fairgrounds for testing. We struggled with many problems (GPS frequecy update, Brakes, Insurance waivers, etc...). Finnally around 2:30 we began testing intersections with 2 and then 3 traffic vehicles. We probably ran it 30 times and worked out a few kinks. Its looking pretty good. Then we moved on to blocked path and after a few hours we finnaly got it going again. Tomorrow we are off to check into the Air Base and receive the NQE-RNDF. Check
this out: |
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| October 22nd: We made it to Victorville! They closed I-215 with only 30 miles to go... We sat on the highway for about an hour with winds gusting to 60mph and fires burning around the city. While inching up the freeway we came upon team Lux actually driving their robot car. They had been forced to evacuate their test facility due to the fires. We finally worked our way through some winding narrow roads and found I-15 still open in one direction that lead us to Victorville. There is a large fire burning just a few miles from here. You can see it from the hotel. Will post some video asap. |
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| October 16th: Video |
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October 14th: DARPA Urban Challenge overview |
| October 11th: Things are begining to fall into place. We finally got the last big piece of the architecture opperational yesterday. We are still working on getting several of the behaviors nailed down and fine tunning others. The team is now working from 7:45am to 3:00am. Unfortunatly its the same 5 guys. We just need anouther 2-3 months to properly test it. Of course if we had anouther 3 months we would just add 10 more radars and a flux capacitor and be in the same boat 3 months from now... |
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October 9th, 2007 Alligator
Story: Alligator video:
UF News:
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October 2nd: |
| August 9th: We have been selected as a semi-finalist. We are headed to Victorville CA in late October. |
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July 11th: |
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June 19th: |
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| April 15th: DARPA demonstration video |
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| April 11th: 1st autonomous run achievied. Behind the scenes video |
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April 4th: |
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March 16th: Nine (Dual-Core) computers are now installed. Space for three more if needed. The Smiths Aerospace, North Finding Module (gyro) has also been installed and four GPS units will soon be operational. Sensors coming soon... Pics |
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March 9th: |
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February 21st: |
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February 15th: |
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February 10th: Behind the scenes at CIMAR video |
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Feb 4th: Our 2 traffic vehicles have arrived and we are now ready for high speed testing up to 330 mph! Can I drive? See Video |
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February 2nd: Various pictures from Jan 5th - Feb 5th including a visit from Ohio State team leader, Umit Ozguner. Apparently Umit does not watch football.... or basketball.... or maybe he is just planning on getting even... Thanks for the great talk Umit, we were very fortunate to have you here. Stop by anytime! |
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February 1st: Test Track established at the NHRA, Gainesville Raceway Thanks to Don Robertson and the Gainesville Raceway this may be the best test course in the country! |
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January 13th: |
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January 11th: |
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January 8th: |
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January 7th: (At the BCS Championship Football Game) Next we headed down to the Gator pep ralley. The streets were filled with Gator Fans and they all cheered as we drove by with the giant UF and Gator logos on the trailer. Dr. Crane was honking the horn so much we started to sound like the UCLA Golem Bot. We pulled to NaviGATOR right into the ralley and parked it amongst 5000 Gator fans. WE talked to a just about everybody and handed out a bunch a free stuff including Gator Nation pins and GatorAid products. It was a real blast and went on for hours Next Stop: The biggest party ever at the BCS parking lot. See you there! |
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January 6th: (At the BCS Championship Football Game) We had a good first day in Glendale AZ. We started off the day by
Emmeadiatly following that meeting we received a visit from the Next stop was the Camel Back Inn. This is where all the media is
After that we headed down to the "Swamp" restaurant and
parked the Today we are off on another busy tour starting with a FOX sports
bar |
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December 25th: |
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December 20th: Video coming soon... |
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| December 8th: Toyota Highlanders throttle and brakes are operational via a custom built controller board that taps directly into the cars computers. |
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November 27th |
| August 6th: Adaptive Planning Framework demonstrated by switching from Roadway Navigation behavior to N-Point Turn behavior and then back to Roadway Navigation behavior based on inputs from situation assessment specialist and controlled by the Decision Broker. Video coming soon... |
