DARPA Grand Challenge

12 hours, 51 minutes.

From their blog:

Mile 5: Excitement quickly became frustration as our vehicle was
enveloped by high winds and debilitating dust - wind and dust that
didn't exist for the first competitors that left the starting gate
hours earlier.

.....

Mile 65: Dissapointment began to set in as TerraMax appears to be
developing a problem, speed has decreased dramatically and navigation
has become tentative. We won't understand the problem until we see it
at the finish line.

.....

We look forward to tomorrow with pessimistic optimism.

http://www.terramax.com/media/race_log.cfm

Posted by joecoin on October 9, 2005, 10:29 pm

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> wrote:
>

>>
>>TerraMax finally finished - still wondering its time.
>>

>
> 12 hours, 51 minutes.
>
> From their blog:
>
> Mile 5: Excitement quickly became frustration as our vehicle was
> enveloped by high winds and debilitating dust - wind and dust that
> didn't exist for the first competitors that left the starting gate
> hours earlier.
>
> .....
>
>
> Mile 65: Dissapointment began to set in as TerraMax appears to be
> developing a problem, speed has decreased dramatically and navigation
> has become tentative. We won't understand the problem until we see it
> at the finish line.
>
>
> .....
>
> We look forward to tomorrow with pessimistic optimism.
>
>
> http://www.terramax.com/media/race_log.cfm

Too bad they gotta blame the "wind and dust that

> didn't exist for the first competitors " for their problems. I saw

video of TerraMax during the trials at the speedway, it took a long time
to get through one gate, backing up a several times before finallly
"deciding" to go through. Seems as thouggh maybe it was over engineered.
But hey, what do I know, I can't even spell DARPA. And they did finish
the course. If anything, they were given specail consideration and
allowed to resume the second day.

Joe

Posted by Ben on October 10, 2005, 3:24 pm

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>> wrote:
>>

>>>
>>>TerraMax finally finished - still wondering its time.
>>>

>>
>> 12 hours, 51 minutes.
>>
>> From their blog:
>>
>> Mile 5: Excitement quickly became frustration as our vehicle was
>> enveloped by high winds and debilitating dust - wind and dust that
>> didn't exist for the first competitors that left the starting gate
>> hours earlier.
>>
>> .....
>>
>>
>> Mile 65: Dissapointment began to set in as TerraMax appears to be
>> developing a problem, speed has decreased dramatically and navigation
>> has become tentative. We won't understand the problem until we see it
>> at the finish line.
>>
>>
>> .....
>>
>> We look forward to tomorrow with pessimistic optimism.
>>
>>
>> http://www.terramax.com/media/race_log.cfm

>
>
>Too bad they gotta blame the "wind and dust that

>> didn't exist for the first competitors " for their problems.

I don't think they're blaming that for not winning. The second
excerpt points out that they had some sort of other problem.

Red Team Too also suffered some unknown technical glitch which put
them out of first place.

All sorts of things happened. Cajunbot's servo motor burned out while
it was "paused" waiting for congestion to clear.

Those are the breaks.

> I saw
>video of TerraMax during the trials at the speedway, it took a long time
>to get through one gate, backing up a several times before finallly
>"deciding" to go through.

Yeah - I got bored watching it, so I didn't see how many times they
had to back up.

>Seems as thouggh maybe it was over engineered.
>But hey, what do I know, I can't even spell DARPA. And they did finish
>the course. If anything, they were given specail consideration and
>allowed to resume the second day.
>

Yeah - not really special consideration - it was clear they didn't
come in under the 10 hour time limit.

Given that they were still running and 18 others had dropped out, I
think it was good that they let them finish even after 10 hours had
elapsed.

>Joe

Posted by Padu on October 10, 2005, 4:19 pm

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"Ben" wrote

>
> I don't think they're blaming that for not winning. The second
> excerpt points out that they had some sort of other problem.
>
> Red Team Too also suffered some unknown technical glitch which put
> them out of first place.
>
> All sorts of things happened. Cajunbot's servo motor burned out while
> it was "paused" waiting for congestion to clear.
>
> Those are the breaks.
>

I was there and it was really windy, but that was true for everybody.
Terramax left the gate a few hours after the first team. They had to be
paused for at least 15 minutes because they were removing Alice (caltech if
I'm not mistaken) from the road (quite an entertaining crash, very close to
all us). The first teams could also blame light conditions as the sun was
not giving full light at dusk.

>> I saw
>>video of TerraMax during the trials at the speedway, it took a long time
>>to get through one gate, backing up a several times before finallly
>>"deciding" to go through.

>
> Yeah - I got bored watching it, so I didn't see how many times they
> had to back up.
>

I don't know if at that point it was already "glitchy", but it took forever
for terramax to cross the railroad bridge close Buffalo Bill. It was stop
and go for at least 10 minutes.

Real pitty was team ENSCO... they got a flat tire at about 60 and something
miles... they were looking very good.

Not trying to take the shine off the winners, but I found that this year it
was much easier than last year. Less miles and the only challenging part was
beer bottle pass, on the last 7 miles of competition. All that said, teams
really improved from last year, as there was no spectacles on the starting
chute. Even the last team did close to 7 miles. (I think only one team
failed to start)

Overall, it was very fun to be there. Kudos for grayteam team that finished
very close to the big dogs.

Cheers

Padu

Posted by newtype on October 10, 2005, 6:56 pm

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Did DARPA say they were going to hold another event for next year?

thanks

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