That didn't take long. The first crackup of the DARPA Urban Challenge happened just a few minutes ago, when Georgia Tech's Sting Racing vehicle smacked into a concrete barrier while undergoing qualifying trials.
The Porsche Cayenne, modified for autonomous operation with sensor arrays and a computer control system, lost GPS lock and drove right into the barrier.
Even more disturbing from the point of view of team engineers, the car's computerized "brain" saw the barrier coming toward it, issued a "stop" command to its control system--and kept driving anyway.
All of the car's sensors on the crumpled front bumper survived, but they'll have to be recalibrated, the bumper repaired, and the bugs that caused the crash worked out--all before the team's next scheduled test tomorrow afternoon, otherwise they're out of the race.
Looks like Georgia Tech's going to have to pull a late night. But they'll have lots of help. Already Carnegie Mellon's Tartan Racing and Team Cornell have chipped in to help with tools and expertise. "I'm ridiculously optimistic," said Georgia Tech's software lead, Magnus Egerstedt. He thinks they'll make it.
UPDATE on 10-28-07 at 1:15 PT: Georgia Tech's back in action.
Last night the Tartan Racing team brought Sting into its well-equipped shop tent, cut some metal, and now, aside from a few scratches, you'd never know that the accident happened.
The Georgia Tech guys stayed up late reworking their code to iron out the bug that caused the crash, and they spent the morning in the test areas confirming that their fixes are working.
They're headed for their next qualifying trial in a couple of hours. I'll let you know how it goes.
