Georgia Tech's Sting Racing vehicle was back in action today after team members worked late last night to repair damage from the second of its two crackups so far.
"I think this is our make-or-break moment," said software lead Magnus Egerstedt before he and his teammates sent Sting into the four-way-stop-and-obstacle-avoidance course, otherwise known as Test Area C. "If we're going to make it to finals, we really need to start overachieving."
The car did well on the course, except for a tendency to ease forward as the last of the cars that had precedence over it crossed in front of it. That behavior wouldn't have raised an eyebrow coming from a human driver, but it made DARPA officials nervous enough at one point to flip Spirit's pause switch to disable it long enough for the DARPA driver to get across the intersection.
Sting team members insisted that their car would have seen the other vehicle in time to hit the brakes. But after one of their own got nailed by a robo-car yesterday, officials aren't taking any chances. They hit the pause switch again when Sting, having successfully rerouted around a blocked road, headed down the straightaway toward the K-rail separating it from the judging tent and spectators.
Team members were pretty sure that Sting just wanted to make a U-turn, but they were glad that officials erred on the side of caution rather than letting the car risk yet another hit with a K-rail.
The mostly successful test was the break Sting Racing needed to put it back in the running, team leader Tucker Balch said afterward.
