Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technologies and the

DARPA Grand Challenge

Dr. Doug Rhode

with collaboration from

Jeff Rupp

and Jim McBride

Ford Motor Company

On October 8, 2005, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) held its second Grand Challenge Event where 23 autonomous vehicles attempted to traverse a 131-mile course in the desert near Las Vegas. The Intelligent Vehicle Safety Technology (IVST) team built an autonomous vehicle, the "Desert Tortoise" in less than 9 months to compete in this race. After a brief introduction to the DARPA Grand Challenge, this talk will touch upon the relevance of autonomous vehicle research to active safety systems, the functional architecture of the autonomous vehicle and the performance of the vehicle. Finally, the challenges and future plans for the IVS team for the upcoming DARPA Urban Challenge will be discussed.

Friday, October 6, 2006

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

1500 EECS