DARPA Grand Challenge

The DARPA Grand Challenge was sponsored by the Technology Department Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense competition for unmanned ground vehicles. With the announcement of the prize, the development of completely autonomously moving vehicles should be promoted. The competition was held in 2007 for the last time.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2004

The first Grand Challenge was held in Barstow, California, on 13 March 2004. The route should pass through the Mojave Desert to Primm immediately behind the Nevada border. The DARPA put one million U.S. dollars in prize money for the one vehicle that completed the first 150 miles ( 241.4 km ) long course parallel to Interstate 15 within ten hours. Although more than 100 teams registered for the start, it was possible no team to successfully complete the course. The most successful vehicle could just 7.4 miles ( 11.9 km ) cover, which is less than 5 % of the entire route.

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

The second Grand Challenge was held from 8 to 9 October 2005, again in the Mojave Desert in the U.S. state of Nevada instead, start and finish were in Primm. The donated by the DARPA prize money was doubled to two million dollars. For participation to registered 195 teams from 36 U.S. states and four other countries. This five teams completed the entire route of 132.2 miles ( 212.76 km ), of which four teams within the maximum time of ten hours. Winner of the race was led by Sebastian Thrun team from Stanford University with the modified VW Touareg 'Stanley', which handled the route in 6 hours, 53 minutes and 58 seconds.

DARPA Urban Challenge 2007

The third Grand Challenge was held on 3 November 2007. In contrast to the two previous races, where a course in the largely open ground had to be taken across the desert, the third race in built-up areas abandoned barracks of the former Air Force vertex George Air Force Base was on the edge of California's Victorville instead. This will not stand alone autonomous navigation in the foreground. Since all autonomous vehicles as well as additional, controlled by people cars, were in city traffic here, had also the normal priority rules are observed. For the team that completed the first one 60 miles long and divided into three missions course in less than 6 hours, a total prize money of 3.5 million dollars was announced by DARPA. The first three teams to reach the destination in the shortest time and have to show the least deductions for rule violations, get 2 million, 1 million and 500,000 U.S. dollars. The DARPA Urban Challenge 2007 has won the Tartan Racing Team, second place comes the Stanford Racing Team and to the third place team Victor Tango. The German finalists AnnieWAY team (University of Karlsruhe) and CarOLO (TU Braunschweig) retired during the race due to technical difficulties ( AnnieWAY: probably computer error; CarOLO: Bent sensor after collision with the team MIT) from.

Rules 2007

• The vehicle must autonomously go to the floor and complete the course within six hours.
• The vehicle may not leave a predetermined area of the DARPA.
• The vehicle may publicly accessible signals, how to use the GPS for example.
• It can be sent to the vehicle during the race no control commands.
• The vehicle must not touch any other vehicle intentionally.
• It is an autonomous station allows service that is approximately half the total length of the route.