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CMU Robot Hummers Finish Qualifying Runs

Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 15:00 CDT

By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sep. 30--Both of the self-driving Hummers developed by Carnegie Mellon University's Red Team successfully completed their first qualifying runs for a robotic desert race Oct. 8.

The Red Team's two vehicles, Sandstorm and H1ghlander, are among 43 vehicles competing this week at California Speedway outside of Los Angeles for a place in the starting lineup for the 150-mile Grand Challenge race through the Mojave Desert.

H1ghlander, in one of its first outings since flipping over in practice last week, completed the 2.2-mile trial run late Wednesday, while its stablemate, Sandstorm, finished its run yesterday afternoon.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that the entire field in the 2005 Grand Challenge has advanced significantly beyond what we saw in 2004," said Tony Tether, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is sponsoring the race. No vehicle won the initial Grand Challenge last year, though Sandstorm went the farthest of the 15 vehicles that started the race.

All of the 43 vehicles competing this year will have multiple chances to run the qualifying course, which includes paved and unpaved surfaces, gates, a tunnel and obstacles. DARPA will not announce which 20 vehicles qualify for the race until Wednesday.

H1ghlander and Sandstorm each hit a traffic cone and touched hay bales along the side of the course during their runs. DARPA officials have not indicated how they are scoring the trials.

The route of the race will be secret until race day, but the course will cover about 150 miles and will begin and end at Primm, Nev., which is at the California state line. The vehicles, which receive no human guidance or assistance during the race, have 10 hours to complete the course.

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GM,

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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