robots.net - Grand Challenge 2005 Coming Soon

Posted 27 Sep 2005 at 02:07 UTC by The Swirling Brain

Darpa's Grand Challenge '05 competition is coming up really soon and already there's lots of excitement about the upcoming competition. The contest will be held October 8th somewhere in the desert Southwest. The exact contest route not to be revealed until two hours before the event begins. Last year's $1 mill contest was from Barstow, California to Primm, Nevada and no vehicles completed the difficult desert course, although CMU's went the farthest. This year's contest will sport a more reasonable $2 mill prize! Entrants include several converted SUVs, souped-up passenger sedans, a modified all-terrain vehicle, a behemoth military truck and even a motorcycle. Unlike last year's simple weeding out of only the best teams, for this year's weeding, teams had to send in a video showcasing their robot's abilities and a crew of judges then fanned across the United States and Canada to check them in action. Of the nearly 200 applicants from 37 states and three foreign countries that applied it looks like only about 20 teams will be allowed to compete! If a team actually wins this year, that'll probably spell the end of the Grand Challenge, but if no one wins, the prize steaks will likely be raised to $4 million!