RSSDriverless car places fifth in last round of challenge
By Brandon Sherman
Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: News
The Ben Franklin Racing Team, a collaboration between students and faculty at Lehigh and the University of Pennsylvania, finished fifth in the final round of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency driverless vehicle challenge.
The vehicle must be capable of navigating through a 60 mile urban course while reacting to obstacles such as traffic signals and other vehicles.
The team's modified Toyota Prius, "Little Ben," raced against ten other teams in the final round of the challenge in California on Nov. 3
John Spletzer, professor of computer science and engineering, said the top three finalists, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University and Virginia Tech, took 30 to 40 seconds to complete certain obstacles which took most teams, including the Ben Franklin Racing Team, about a minute.
Spletzer said the team created a strategy to help Little Ben toward the end of the race.
"We couldn't increase our speed and expect to finish safely," Spletzer said.
"Our strategy was to be the tortoise. If one of the big three got into an accident or crashed, maybe we could sneak up onto the podium, and it almost worked."
Early in the race, Little Ben mistook a change in terrain for an impenetrable obstacle and was temporarily stuck.
The vehicle successfully completed the correct recovery maneuver and was able to continue the race.
While most teams raced in previous DARPA challenges, the Ben Franklin team started from scratch.
"Everyone who stopped by was very impressed with what we were able to accomplish," Spletzer said. "We only started a year ago, and most other teams already had a vehicle and software from participating in the last event. We had a lot of catching up to do."
Seven of the 11 teams were Track A teams because they received research grants of up to $1 million from DARPA.
Track B teams were self-funded.
The Ben Franklin Racing Team was the only Track B to successfully finish the race.
Jason Derenick, '08, a Lehigh student and member of the Ben Franklin Racing Team, said raising money was part of the challenge.
"Teams with Track A funding could focus on development without having much worry for raising funds," Derenick said. "We didn't have that luxury. Up until the end we were trying to raise money to pay for the students that would be out in California."
According to DARPA's Web site, the mission behind the challenge is to create a driverless, or autonomous, vehicle to keep war fighters off of the battlefield.
The vehicle is designed to drive entirely on its own with no human driver or remote control.
The vehicle must be capable of navigating through a 60 mile urban course while reacting to obstacles such as traffic signals and other vehicles.
The team's modified Toyota Prius, "Little Ben," raced against ten other teams in the final round of the challenge in California on Nov. 3
John Spletzer, professor of computer science and engineering, said the top three finalists, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University and Virginia Tech, took 30 to 40 seconds to complete certain obstacles which took most teams, including the Ben Franklin Racing Team, about a minute.
Spletzer said the team created a strategy to help Little Ben toward the end of the race.
"We couldn't increase our speed and expect to finish safely," Spletzer said.
"Our strategy was to be the tortoise. If one of the big three got into an accident or crashed, maybe we could sneak up onto the podium, and it almost worked."
Early in the race, Little Ben mistook a change in terrain for an impenetrable obstacle and was temporarily stuck.
The vehicle successfully completed the correct recovery maneuver and was able to continue the race.
While most teams raced in previous DARPA challenges, the Ben Franklin team started from scratch.
"Everyone who stopped by was very impressed with what we were able to accomplish," Spletzer said. "We only started a year ago, and most other teams already had a vehicle and software from participating in the last event. We had a lot of catching up to do."
Seven of the 11 teams were Track A teams because they received research grants of up to $1 million from DARPA.
Track B teams were self-funded.
The Ben Franklin Racing Team was the only Track B to successfully finish the race.
Jason Derenick, '08, a Lehigh student and member of the Ben Franklin Racing Team, said raising money was part of the challenge.
"Teams with Track A funding could focus on development without having much worry for raising funds," Derenick said. "We didn't have that luxury. Up until the end we were trying to raise money to pay for the students that would be out in California."
According to DARPA's Web site, the mission behind the challenge is to create a driverless, or autonomous, vehicle to keep war fighters off of the battlefield.
The vehicle is designed to drive entirely on its own with no human driver or remote control.
