Sensing, Navigation and Reasoning Technologies for the DARPA Urban Challenge

Abstract : This report describes Team Caltech's technical approach and results for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. Our primary technical thrusts were in three areas: (1) mission and contingency management for autonomous systems; (2) distributed sensor fusion, mapping and situational awareness; and (3) optimization-based guidance, navigation and control. Our autonomous vehicle, Alice, demonstrated new capabilities in each of these areas and drove approximate 300 autonomous miles in preparation for the race. The vehicle completed 2 of the 3 qualification tests, but did not ultimately qualify for the race due to poor performance in the merging tests at the National Qualifying Event.

[1]  Michel D. Ingham,et al.  Engineering Complex Embedded Systems with State Analysis and the Mission Data System , 2004 .

[2]  Joel W. Burdick,et al.  Alice: An information‐rich autonomous vehicle for high‐speed desert navigation , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[3]  Mark B. Milam,et al.  Real-Time Optimal Trajectory Generation for Constrained Dynamical Systems , 2003 .

[4]  R.M. Murray,et al.  Nonlinear lateral control strategy for nonholonomic vehicles , 2008, 2008 American Control Conference.

[5]  Glenn Reeves,et al.  Software architecture themes in JPL's Mission Data System , 1999, 2000 IEEE Aerospace Conference. Proceedings (Cat. No.00TH8484).

[6]  Mark B. Milam,et al.  Trajectory generation for differentially flat systems via NURBS basis functions with obstacle avoidance , 2006, 2006 American Control Conference.

[7]  Michel D. Ingham,et al.  Engineering Complex Embedded Systems with State Analysis and the Mission Data System , 2004, J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun..

[8]  Max Donath,et al.  American Control Conference , 1993 .

[9]  Richard M. Murray,et al.  Receding horizon control of vectored thrust flight experiment , 2005 .

[10]  Robert Rasmussen,et al.  Goal-based fault tolerance for space systems using the mission data system , 2001, 2001 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (Cat. No.01TH8542).

[11]  Joel W. Burdick,et al.  Alice: An information‐rich autonomous vehicle for high‐speed desert navigation , 2006 .

[12]  Jack Bresenham,et al.  Algorithm for computer control of a digital plotter , 1965, IBM Syst. J..