Photos from the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge in VictorVille, California

Since 2004, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has sponsored an annual tournament to challenge robotocists, programmers, and backyard inventors. The goal: create an autonomous vehicle capable of navigating terrain without human intervention.

Past years involved a 100-mile trek across desert terrain, but after an inauspicious start in 2004 (when no team successfully completed the course), the technology has progressed to the point where driverless vehicles are ready to tackle urban navigation.

Unmanned vehicles feature prominently in my book, and I've received a fair share of email expressing skepticism about the capabilities of existing technology. I got a chance to head up to Victorville this year and check out the action. No less than six of the 31 competitors succesfully completed the course -- which consisted of 20-miles filled with other drivers, stop signs, traffic circles, and railroad gates. I think Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and Virginia Tech have put to rest the question of whether this was science fiction.

Here are some photos from a very interesting day at the robot races...

	MIT's entry (Bot 79) being driven into the starting gate. This is arguably the most expensive Range Rover on the planet...
	...and it's not because of the leather interior. Note the A/C unit on top of this thing. Those boards were generating a lot of BTU's.
	Even robotocists have to take time out to walk the dog. Either that or this is the smallest chariot ever devised.
	Virginia Tech's Bot 32 being tail-gated by a DARPA target driver. Note that the bot is actually using its turn signal—a sure sign that no human was behind the wheel...
	The strangest damned circus I've ever been to.
	Once the bots were on the course, the best place for teams to track the action was on the big screen. Helicopters covered every moment. Such was the fear that the DARPA target drivers might endanger someone.
	Part of DARPA's large fleet of target cars. These sedans roamed about the course, acting the part of real-life drivers the bots had to navigate around.
	Not that DARPA didn't trust the bots, but... All target drivers wore racing helmets and were safely contained in crash cages. Tearing the interiors out of a few dozen leased Ford Taurus's and spot-welding steel bars across the passenger compartment might affect their resale value (for the better).
	Second and first place winners: 'Junior' (Stanford University) and 'Boss' (Carnegie Mellon University).
	Of course, the Texas robot showed up with an attitude. It was later determined that the outsized Stetson hat bolted to its roof obscured the sensors.
	Actually, I kid the Austin bot. It got knocked out of the race but is probably smarter than half the people now running for President.
	DARPA required that all bots have physical and remote kill switches. (They saw 'Terminator' -- they know what can happen). It's interesting that the text is in both English and Spanish. Apparenty the judges were anticipating that some bots might go way off course.
	Oshkosh Trucks doing their best Team America impression... I like the security camera mounted on the back. I mean, who's going to try to break into this truck? It's got whoop-ass painted all over it.