 |
Life goes on for Levandowski’s robocycle, Ghostrider
 |
Anthony Levandowski (B.S.’02, M.S.’03 IEOR) demonstrates the equipment that makes his Ghostrider go at the DARPA Grand Challenge preliminaries last month. He plans to return to his IEOR doctoral work in January and continue working on autonomous systems.
GAMMA USA/FRÉDÉRIC NEEMA PHOTO
|
After a full-time two-year push to win the much-publicized DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race, Berkeley’s Blue Team and its unmanned motorcycle, Ghostrider, failed to qualify for the October 8 finals. But team leader and alumnus Anthony Levandowski (B.S.’02, M.S.’03 IEOR) is taking it in stride.
“Winning was not our first objective," Levandowski says. “Our real goal was to deliver innovation. And if you measure success by the amount of innovation per dollar, I think we’re pretty far ahead.”
Working with corporate sponsors like Agilent, Advanced Micro Devices, and Raytheon, Levandowski spent less than $150,000 outfitting the 90-cc dirt bike with an onboard computer, sensors, and gyros for steering and stability and two video cameras for eyes. It was the only two-wheeled vehicle in the field, which Levandowski says gives it more maneuverability and disposability than the converted Hummers, Jeeps, and trucks he competed against.
“Ghostrider wasn’t as reliable as the 23 entrants that qualified,” he says, “but it’s the next generation for future practical applications because of its small size.” Companies like Honda, he says, are inquiring about the vehicle’s stabilizing hardware for possible safety and training applications. He hopes to keep Ghostrider alive by continuing to refine its subsystems, like the obstacle avoidance software, for potential use in unmanned scouting and surveillance operations.
The DARPA race, sponsored last year by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, offered a $2 million prize to the first team to build a vehicle that could navigate unmanned through the Mojave Desert. None of last year’s teams finished, creating even greater anticipation for this year’s face-off as institutions like Carnegie Mellon and Caltech refined their vehicles. Stanford Racing Team’s entry Stanley, the first of five vehicles to complete this year’s 132-mile course with a time of 6:53:08, captured the prize. |
|
FOREFRONT takes you into the
labs, classrooms, and lives of professors, students, and alumni
for an intimate look at the innovative research, teaching, and
campus life that define the College of Engineering at the University
of California, Berkeley.
Published twice a year by the College of Engineering Office of Marketing & Communications. Have a comment about Forefront? E-mail
your letter to the editor. Click here
to learn more about the magazine. |
|
