Robotic VX to compete again!

[Triathlete]

Thanks for the update.
Good luck in the urban setting.
Be sure to let us know how it goes...












...And of course PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES!!!!!!!

[Scott Harness]

Front page of the Dallas Morning News- Pictures and two page story-named Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

[creeg]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...n.3552d7a.html

[Triathlete]

And a little VIDEO
There are a bunch of pics I took of the VX on this site if you do a search. Pics of the exterior and interior modifications (these are from its 1st incarnation...it has been updated since) which I took when I met up with them as they roled through Tucson after their last DARPA competition. Great bunch of guys and an impressive amount of time and engineering.

[Techy-D]

This is totally cool! You guys are doing my dream job! :_drool:

I also couldn't help but notice a couple features on team Axion, that I think you should also incorperate.
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/...xionRacing.asp
(They are in the center of the picture... come to think of it, why is their vehicle off to one side???)

[Triathlete]

Team OshKoshTruck should have fun navagating this through a city...

...of course if something gets in the way it will just crush it and keep on going!

[Techy-D]

Since we haven't heard an update, that must mean things are going as planned (atleast still in the competition). They are probably working 24Hrs a day to make changes before the next weekend challenge. It'll be great to hear about this when It's all over (and you guys have a chance to get some sleep).

[Triathlete]

Pics from the comp...




Crunch time!




Unfortunately from the DARPA site it appears that they did not make the cut for the final 6 teams.

[fuzzy]

Reread that...

"Six teams have qualified for the Urban Challenge Final Event. Testing continues, and additional qualifying vehicles will be announced November 1."

I did notice they are not yet on the "Did Not Qualify" listing:
The Golem Group
Axion Racing
Mojavaton
Team CalTech
Team Jefferson
Team Juggernaut
Gator Nation
Team Urbanator
GA Tech/SAIC
Ody-Era
Princeton
SciAutonics
Team Berlin
Univ of Utah

Good luck to Marvin & ART!

[fuzzy]

Sadly, it looks like ART's VX is now out of the competition. Wish there were vids/pics of why.

[Techy-D]

Bummer guys. I know you had to have put TONS of energy into this (Blood, Sweat & Tears), but I also know you had a great time and learned a bunch. This is still incredible and even though I won't be able to watch the live updates tomorrow on the other competitors, I'll be looking up info & Pics later.

[Techy-D]

Updates??? I've read a bunch of great stuff about the final race, but how about our beloved VX (It didn't make it to the very end, but it did compete for a while). I'd love an update or two about the VX and what it was able to do or couldn't do, what was the last straw,...

Enquiring minds want to know!

[tom4bren]

I was in a meeting yesterday & the Urban Challenge came up. I asked how the VX did & this was roughly the conversation:

How did the VehiCross do?

Vehi - WHAT???

The Isuzu that UT Austin entered - VehiCross.

Vehi - WHAT???

That thing that looks like it was built for a mission to mars - VehiCross.

Vehi - WHAT???

Oh, never mind.

[fuzzy]

I sent a message to info@austinrobot.com and got this back:

"Thanks for the email! I don't know if my brother Art replied already or not (we both get the emails sent to "info"). I would have updated our website sooner had I known that members of the USAFA were curious about our team! Thanks for asking! The summary is that Carnegie Mellon won 1st place, Stanford won 2nd place and Virginia Tech won 3rd place. Our team was one of the top 21 teams during the semifinals. DARPA had said they would (might) take up to 21 teams to the final event so we were crossing our fingers during the announcement of the finalists. In the end DARPA decided to advance only 11 teams to the final event. DARPA Director Dr. Tony Tether made the announcement of the finalists and he said that he was riding one of the "chase" vehicles during one of the trials when the robot car they were following made a sudden U-Turn and started heading directly towards their car on a full head-on collision course... He said that's when he decided to trim the field from 21 finalists to only 11... Hopefully our team will advance to the final event for the next Grand Challenge! By the way, I can send you a link to our photo album if you are interested. Thanks for the inquiry and thanks for all you guys do for our country!

Jorge"

[tom4bren]

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that caused me to resurrect this thread. It read:

"In case of DARPA Challenge, this vehicle will be unmanned."

I gotta get me one of those for the VX.