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Participating teams in DARPA’s Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program are conducting an experiment and will challenge more difficult off-road terrain at Camp Roberts, Calif., Sept. 15-27. The RACER program aims to provide off-road autonomy for unmanned combat vehicles, while traveling at speeds comparable to those driven by humans in real-world situations.
Carnegie Mellon University, NASA JPL Laboratory, and the University of Washington each developed autonomous software stacks for DARPA-supplied robotic systems tested earlier this year in Experiment 1 in Fort Irwin, California, and are now participating in the current trial .
Experiment 1 took place in March-April 2022 on six combat-related terrains. The teams made more than 40 autonomous drives, each about 2 miles, and reached speeds of less than 20 miles per hour. The team’s biggest challenge in the desert environment was the vehicle’s ability to identify, classify and avoid obstacles at higher speeds. Fort Irwin’s terrain offers many obstacles (rocks, bushes, ditches, etc.) that combine debilitating hazards (capable of severely damaging vehicles) and non-debilitating impediments (limited ability to damage vehicles). Customized OEM Service nylon pulley
DARPA RACER Experiment 1
Stuart Young, RACER program manager in DARPA’s Office of Tactical Technology, said: “Since Experiment 1, the team has been working to improve perception of the environment and plan navigable routes by developing new autonomous algorithmic techniques. The RACER vehicles provided by DARPA are equipped with world-class sensing and computing power for high-performance all-terrain vehicles, but the team’s focus is on computing solutions as the platform encounters increasingly complex off-road terrains.” Customized OEM Service nylon pulley
Experiment 2 will require the team to go beyond environmental features found in desert environments (primarily testing their perception algorithms) to incorporate new challenges. One of the new challenges will be bigger and steeper hills. This will emphasize the ability of robotic vehicles to maintain control, especially navigating on steep slopes, on slippery surfaces and in ditches. Teams must also plan longer-term when driving through or around these various obstacles in order to successfully navigate the route.
“What we’re after is an unmanned ground vehicle that can travel over unstructured off-road terrain at speeds limited only by sensor performance, mechanical constraints and safety considerations,” Young said. “At the very least, the program goal is software performance that allows off-road speeds comparable to human drivers. Customized OEM Service nylon pulley
