DARPA Urban Challenge

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11/09/2007

Nov. 09, 2007

DARPA Urban Challenge

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Several years ago, the U.S. military research agency DARPA challenged inventors and engineers to develop robotic vehicles that could successfully navigate a course across a portion of the Mojave Desert. No teams finished that test, called the Grand Challenge. This year, DARPA upped the ante, asking teams to design and build robotic vehicles that could be trusted to safely drive cars on city streets. Teams met last week on a former Air Force base to test their vehicles, which needed to navigate a simulated city street, obeying traffic laws while avoiding obstacles and other vehicles. We'll talk with one of the members of the winning team from Carnegie Mellon University about the recent robot road test.

Produced by Karin Vergoth

Guests

William 'Red' Whittaker
University Professor of Robotics

The Robotics Institute

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Nov. 09, 2007