Teams tune up unmanned cars for Mojave challenge.

The Defense Department wants to bring unmanned vehicles down to earth.

Looking to duplicate the success of unnamed aerial vehicles like Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will pay $1 million to any engineer, scientist or tinkerer who develops a vehicle that can find its way unaided from Barstow to Las Vegas in less than 10 hours.

Called the Grand Challenge, the 200-mile race across the Mojave Desert commences on March 13, with teams from the California Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and Ohio State University's electrical engineering department, along with more than 100 others. Most teams are heavy with experienced engineers and software developers working full-time jobs.

"We expect to see the autonomous ground vehicle to begin to demonstrate a level of behavior that is unprecedented today. Most robotic vehicles today are tethered," said Air Force Col. Jose Negron, project manager for the race.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

There are 105 teams listed as potential participants on DARPA's Web site, including several in Southern California. The teams were required to submit technical papers describing their strategies to DARPA by Oct. 14. Only 20 to 30 teams are expected to be approved for the race.

Five teams, including those from Cal Tech and SciAutonics LLC in Thousand Oaks, have already been approved. The rest of the cuts will be made by early November.

The desert route, which DARPA has kept under wraps, is expected to be treacherous. The teams expect much of the race to be held within the confines of Fort Irwin, a U.S. Army training base covering 635,000 arid acres between Barstow and Las Vegas.

The lack of information has forced teams to be especially creative as they meld the necessary expertise in robotics, mechanical engineering, software development, sensor technology, satellite-based navigation and auto mechanics.

"We are looking at mobility, artificial intelligence and behavioral science in these vehicles," said Negron, who gives teams a 20 percent chance at best to finish the race. "It's critical that the internal mechanisms of these vehicles work together."

The Grand Challenge will be rerun every year through 2007, with future locations yet to be decided. An award will be paid to each winner annually. If DARPA likes the results from this year's robotic vehicle race, it will test different technologies in future races.

Universities have been the central hub of development. Cal Tech has used undergraduate students extensively while the CyberRider team in Irvine has an engineer contributing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Teams lacking strong university ties have had to rely on sponsorship or company connections. SciAutonics is comprised of engineers working full-time at Rockwell Scientific in Thousand Oaks, which supplies the team with computer equipment and software.

DARPA has left the design of the vehicles up to the teams. Some are using dune buggies, many are using converted SUVs. Part of DARPA's review will focus on whether the cars are rugged enough to withstand the race and possess sophisticated enough navigation systems to evade obstacles.

The final step for teams after passing the November review will be a test run at the California Speedway racetrack in Fontana the day before the race. There, DARPA will run the vehicles through an obstacle course and determine if they are ready to compete.