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MIT makes it to semifinals in robot truck competition
(Donna Coveney)
This self-piloted Land Rover LR3 is MIT's entry for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge competition
By Globe Staff
In some war of the future, American combat soldiers trudging down a road may look up to see a convoy of trucks laden with supplies rumbling past -- with no drivers anywhere in sight.
That may sound like science fiction. But it's an idea that the U.S. military is taking seriously.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency today announced that 36 teams, including a group from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have been selected as semifinalists in a contest for robotic vehicles.
The vehicles will conduct simulated military supply missions at a former Air Force base in California -- all the while obeying California traffic laws.
"Our team is delighted to move forward to the next stage of the competition," MIT team leader John Leonard, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering, said in a statement.
The semifinals of the DARPA Urban Challenge will be held Oct. 26-27, while the finals will be held on Nov. 3.
The top three finishers that compete the course within the six-hour time limit will get $2 million, $1 million, and $500,000. The agency has held two previous competitions; this one would be the first in an urban environment.
"The vehicles must perform as well as someone with a California driver's license," Tony Tether, director of DARPA, said in a statement. He praised the "depth and quality of this year's field."
