SciAutonics-Auburn Team to Compete for $2M DARPA Grand Challenge Prize

For the second consecutive year, Auburn University will partner with SciAutonics in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge, scheduled for October 8. Designed to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicle technology that will help save lives on the battlefield, the Grand Challenge is an autonomous race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas in which a vehicle must drive along a loosely defined route without human intervention. The first team to complete the race will take home $2 million.

SciAutonics is a small group comprised primarily of Rockwell Scientific Company employees based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. Because an Auburn team designed the control and navigation algorithms for the vehicle for the 2004 Grand Challenge, this year's team is named SciAutonics-Auburn. SciAutonics shipped the vehicle to Auburn University last summer to allow Auburn direct access to work on it. Learn more at: www.eng.auburn.edu/~dmbevly/gavlab/currentprojects/darpa-gc-03.htm