ROBOT RACERS CROSS DESERT FINISH LINE.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

PRIMM, Nev. - Four driverless robotic vehicles led by Stanford University on Saturday crossed the finish line of a $2 million Pentagon-sponsored robot race across the rugged Mojave Desert.

As Stanford's Volkswagen robot dubbed Stanley crossed the finish line, a group of Stanford students erupted into cheers and carried their team leader, Sebastian Thrun, on their shoulders.

``The impossible has been achieved,'' said Thrun, throwing his cap into the crowd.

Stanley started in second, but passed the pole position vehicle, a converted red Hummer named H1ghlander, at the 102-mile mark of the 132-mile race. H1ghlander and a customized Humvee named Sandstorm, both by Carnegie Mellon University, also finished the race.

``I'm on top of the world,'' said Carnegie Mellon robotics professor William ``Red'' Whittaker. ``It's the greatest day ever for these machines that pound through the desert.''

Whittaker said it appeared H1ghlander suffered a technical glitch that allowed Stanford's robot to overtake it.

The sentimental favorite, a Ford Escape Hybrid by students in Metarie, La., was the fourth vehicle to finish Saturday. The team lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast.

The race announcer did not immediately declare a winner because 22 out of the 23 robots left the starting line at staggered times at dawn, racing against the clock rather than each other.

Two Conejo Valley vehicles - a street-legal Jeep Cherokee entered by Axion Racing of Westlake Village and the tiny four-wheel-drive ATV named Rascal from SciAutonics of Thousands Oaks - failed to finish.

``We got less than a mile last year, and we got 30 times as better this time,'' said John Porter, head of SciAutonics' volunteer team. ``(We) got something like 28 miles. While it was going, it looked really good. So, we were really pleased.''

Porter said he thinks a computer failed on the ATV, which was built for less than $30,000 from his employer, Rockwell Scientific, and private investors.

``According to the chase car driver, the car ran off the road and the orange caution light on top went off,'' Porter said. ``And that indicates one of the computer programs must have frozen.''

Axion was told their Jeep - which carried two blue surfboards on the roof - got stuck about the 65-mile mark in a silty dry wash.

``There are a couple washouts along the route,'' said team leader Bill Kehaly. ``This one was filled with silt. We decided to go through it in slow mode.''

If there is a competition next year, SciAutonics will participate, Porter said, although he thinks the next step could be governmental funding.

``The government wants to harness the technology,'' Porter said. ``There will be contracts rewarded, and we would like to be a part of that.''

Also in his second race - the entry last year broke down before reaching the start line - Kehaly said he has had his fill of autonomous racing.

But he sees a possible use for the self-piloting technology: four-seater electric carts operating as autonomous taxis for short low speed trips.

``You could call a number and it would come and get you,'' Kehaly said.

Last year's much-hyped inaugural robot race ended without a winner when all the self-navigating vehicles broke down shortly after leaving the starting gate. Sandstorm chugged the farthest last year at 7 1/2 miles.

Of the 23 robots that competed Saturday, all but two beat Sandstorm's mileage last year.

The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, plans to award the prize to the first vehicle to cover the race in less than 10 hours. The taxpayer-funded race was intended to spur innovation and development of remote control-free robots that could be used in the battlefield.

Stanley finished the course in less than 7 1/2 hours.

The unmanned vehicles must use their computer brains and sensing devices to follow a programmed route and avoid hitting obstacles that may doom their chances.

Early Saturday, teams were given a CD-ROM with GPS coordinates that chart the exact route. The all-day race, which starts and ends in the casino town of Primm, spans the Mojave Desert on the Nevada side.

Vehicles have to drive on rough, winding desert roads and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush and man-made obstacles. The machines also must traverse a narrow 1.3-mile mountain pass with a steep drop-off and go through three tunnels designed to knock out their GPS signals.

To qualify, vehicles competed in a weeklong trial at the California Speedway outside of Los Angeles where they had to zip through a 2.5-mile bumpy track littered with hay bales, traffic cones and junk cars. All 23 finalists completed the course at least once.

This year's field was competitive. Even before Saturday's race, many teams tested their vehicles in parts of the Southwest desert under racelike conditions including some that practiced on last year's course from Barstow to Primm.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Stanford University team members celebrate after their Volkswagen robot was first to cross the finish line in Saturday's race.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News