DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), for the second year in a row, is running the DARPA Grand Challenge on October 8th. The Grand Challenge is to develop an autonomous vehicle that can navigate tough terrain - in this case, a desert in Nevada. To win, the vehicle has to complete a 150 mile course in under 10 hours. Remember - this is not a remote control vehicle - it is completely autonomous - no human interaction or help. Why would anyone compete in this challenge? Other than bragging rights - how about a $2 million prize to the winning vehicle’s team - not bad!

Of course this is not just an artificial intelligence problem - it has other challenges that make this a true Grand Challenge. In 2004 none of the contestants came close to completing the course, but I am certain a great number of lessons were learned and the feedback into this year’s competition will certainly move everyone closer to the ultimate goal of autonomous vehicles.

This is a complicated task to be sure, but one team is using a motorcycle. The BlueTeam made up of students from UC Berkeley and Texas A&M have an excellent entry in this year’s competition. Last year they made it to the final race, but didn’t get too far - actually fell over at the start line. This year the team has created a much improved vehicle - check out the videos of autonomous motorcycle test runs.