An autonomous motorcycle entry, the Dexterit Ghostrider Robot, collapses at the starting line.
(Damian Dovarganes - Associated Press)
A Grand Challenge: Is it possible to build a vehicle capable of navigating across 200 miles of open desert without any form of human intervention? The Pentagon's research agency has put $1 million on the table for the team that can pass that test in a race on March 13. washingtonpost.com followed employees from ENSCO, a Northern Virginia-based engineering firm, as they built and tested a robotic vehicle to enter in the DARPA race (Pierre Kattar and John Poole, washingtonpost.com)
The victim of a faulty global positioning system, Axion Racing's converted Jeep Grand Cherokee wandered in circles, its steering wheel moving side to side and the horn sounding pitifully. Unable to find its way, the contestant was yanked off the course.
Technicians -- with laptops in hand -- rushed to the aid of six-wheeled Cajunbot after it tangled with barbed wire just minutes after the start. Team ENSCO of Falls Church leapt off the starting line, but the modified all-terrain vehicle, which was stellar in prerace runs, flipped on its side as it rounded a corner yards from the starting line.
Palos Verdes High School in California fielded the only high school team.
At age 15, sophomore Andrew Nelson isn't old enough to have a driver's license, but he and several classmates spent the last several months sacrificing sleep and free time to compete against a field of more experienced engineers. Nelson watched in horror as their entry, Doom Buggy, crashed head-on into a concrete barrier just after the start.
"It was a disappointment, but it was exciting to see our car get out of the starting gate and compete with all of these teams," Nelson said.
Of the 21 vehicles that attempted to qualify for the 142-mile competition over four days of trials this week at the California Speedway, east of Los Angeles, just seven negotiated the 1.36-mile obstacle course.
Although no one won $1 million from DARPA, that didn't dampen the spirits of the hundreds of scientists, programmers and grease monkeys who grinned at the thought of being able to spend hours tinkering and toying with their creations.
"It's the coolness factor," Axion Racing team member George Spalding said. "We're going to look back after the machines have taken over and say, 'How did that start?' And we can say we were a part of that."
