The team ran course B again … 6.5km with parking, obstacle avoidance, and some significant navigation. This was the run when we lost the sensor system the first day. CMU ran this same course again yesterday, and we heard they completed it in 21 min. That was 3 min slower than the day before so we were convinced that DARPA made the course more difficult … why I don’t know, since almost no one has made it through this course (we understand that only 6 teams have finished it with CMU being the only team to finish it twice).

Team Lux ran before us and did not get out of the start zone until their team interacted with the vehicle. The interactions cost them a boatload of time, and they had only 10 minutes to complete the course … they did not get very far. MIT went right before us and quickly got into the course and looked like they were doing great. After about 10 minutes we got word that MIT’s vehicle had gotten lost. They were driving around in circles going up and down streets in the little town looking for a way back out. The team had to retrieve the bot.

Finally it was our turn. Without much fanfare … we completed the course in 20 min, successfully navigating a dozen cars, barrel obstacles, two fences, and parking in a parking spot.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

That was only the first run of the day, so we grab a quick lunch and head to area C. We successfully navigate area C, which has changed slightly. The barrier that consisted of stop signs and a big cross rail has been removed. We understand that in addition to one team loosing a windshield another lost a $75K sensor. We complete the run successfully, but again we do not pick up the next to last checkpoint of the run. It is “technically” unreachable according to the rules of the road we were given (which I of course explain to everyone that I can get to listen to me). At this point, we don’t think this is an issue.

As soon as we finish the course we are told to go to area A (the traffic problem). That run was not supposed to be until tomorrow and we wanted to tweak some things for even better performance. Nevertheless, we hustle over there just in time to watch the team from the University of Florida start their run. After a couple of laps in which they almost t-bone 2 drivers, they are pulled from the course. It’s not a good day for the Gators. So it’s our turn. At this point we are told that the DARPA director (Dr. Tether) is in the stands and is personally judging performance on this course. He is supposed to give a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. The good thing was that by this point in the day most of the crowd that watches this course (the only one you can see all of) had left so we figure we can do this in relative anonymity. As soon as we start, however, another team goes running to the pit area and tells everyone Team UCF is running on A. Within a minute there are a hundred people watching. We start the course and complete 10 laps and receive 1 honk all in less than 15 minutes … arguably one of the best showings of the event. The crowd cheers.

Dr. Tether calls us over and tells us how impressed he was, but tells us we have to go back to area C … right now … and pick up that next to last check point. I proceed to explain the technical reasons why that checkpoint is not achievable but that does not matter. We rush over to C and see MIT in line right in front of us. This is their fifth run of the day and their team is frantically pouring over code trying to make their bot get the checkpoint. Their team captain comes over and asks if we would like to run in front of them. At this point we are pretty sure we know how to make this work ... “it’s only one line of code” … but I require the team to complete a simulation of it first so we tell MIT no thanks. MIT was doing the same thing, but apparently their simulation runs real time so it was going to take 15 minutes to verify. We verify while they run. They run their car anyway without completing the simulation (pretty gutsy!), and after one in course interaction with the bot they then meet it. Our simulation shows that the change will in fact work, but by this point its getting dark … DARPA will not let us run … we actually might run better in the dark, but no amount of pleading gets us on the course … so this is where we sit … in limbo.

At this point all we know is that the following teams are officially IN:
1) CMU
2) Stanford
3) Virginia Tech, and
4) Cornell.

The following teams are officially OUT:
1) Georgia Tech/SAIC Sting Racing
2) Ody-Era
3) Princeton
4) SciAutonics/Auburn Engineering
5) Team Berlin
6) University of Utah
7) Caltech
8) Mojavaton
9) Team Jefferson
10) Team Urbanator
11) Gator Nation
12) Team Juggernaut.