IT CAME FROM THE GARAGE...

TO COMPETE FOR $2 MILLION
IN THE D.A.R.P.A. GRAND CHALLENGE 2005
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A.I. Motorvators, An Independent SoCal Team Of Engineers, Racers And Hot Rodders, Enters Groundbreaking, Fully Autonomous ‘Independent' Vehicle In Defense Department-Sponsored Race Across the Southwestern Desert

On October 8, 2005, the world will be watching eagerly as 20 robotic, fully autonomous vehicles attempt to navigate 175 miles of rugged Southwest desert terrain, inpursuit of technological innovation that could someday save the lives of American soldiers on a future battlefield—and a $2 million dollar prize.

This year's highly anticipated run—a true "Survivor" type event for both race car and computer programming enthusiasts--marks the second such Grand Challenge by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The money goes to the team whose vehicle completes the course the fastest, and in fewer than ten hours.

Yet for Team Leader Chris "CJ" Pedersen, and the AI Motorvators entry dubbed "Dawn of the Independents", there's more at stake than money and prestige. In a thoroughly modern day, technological age twist on the biblical David vs. Goliath tale, his seven member team—"a handful of dedicated but non-academic Southern California garage guys"—is competing against top engineering minds and grad students from universities like Carnegie Mellon, Cal Tech and Cornell.
Perfectly in line with Pedersen's former life as a Hollywood actor in movies like Platoon, Point Break and Suburbia, he is living out the ultimate underdog fantasy—the boys from the auto shop finding ingenious ways to outsmart the geeks from the chess club. Combined with his lifelong love for racing cars, and working on Harleys, the parallels to Jesse James of the Discovery Channel's Monster Garage, is undeniable. His push into the rarified air of high technology has taken some by surprise.

"Our team, the A.I. Motorvators is a group of true mavericks," the longtime mechanical design consultant says. "Most of the schools and organizations we're up against are just accessorizing conventional vehicles and showing a lack of true imagination. For many, it's about strapping excessive amounts of sensors onto showroom quality SUVs and coming up with cookie cutter approaches. Our ‘Dawn of the Independents' is a custom built, 21st century hot rod, our take on the classic open wheel roadster, complete with hood scoop and exhaust coming off the side.

"The big difference is that the others come at it from a purely academic standpoint, while we've embraced the project from an unconventional point of view," Pedersen adds. "Our approach is somewhere between a neural net and a brick on the accelerator. We've built everything from the ground up. Rather than use off the shelf components, we developed our own actuation technology that turns the wheels and moves the throttle. W e also designed and built the car's complete electronic hardware and software package. There's an incredible sense of achievement in creating a vehicle of this magnitude from scratch."

Although their car literally has a brain of its own and can plan and self-navigate a route without any human or radio controlled assistance, the A.I. Motorvators team has chosen not to designate their car with the dry terminology of "autonomous vehicle." Instead, their term for the intelligent robotics involved is simply, "Independent." Unlike most robots, Independents are a new breed of machine that can think for themselves. Functioning day or night in harsh conditions too dangerous for human drivers, tirelessly performing a multitude of tasks, all without human assistance, these Independents could supply military forces under fire in hostile areas. Additionally, on a civilian level, they could someday allow blind and disabled persons to enjoy greater mobility.
The A.I. Motorvators came together in January 2003. "I was looking at the DARPA website for small business programs when I came upon the challenge," says Pedersen. "I knew right away we could build a vehicle to enter the race. I started calling people, trying to get them involved. The hardest task was lifting the confusion of how to approach the complicated sets of problems involved. The learning curve is very steep." DARPA is the central research and development (R&D) agency in the Department of Defense, and has pioneered major technological breakthroughs such as the internet, Stealth aircraft, smart bombs and the pilotless Predator aircraft. DARPA maintains a distinguished reputation among leaders in the technological, scientific and academic communities.

The DARPA Grand Challenge is part of the ongoing DoD R&D Program to maintain our country's military advantage, with an eye towards helping save the lives of our men and women in uniform. A Congressionally mandated program that expressly authorizes DARPA to conduct contests and award prizes for advancement in vital technologies, the exciting, multipurpose "race" is a tribute to The United States' rich heritage of innovation, risk taking and sense of team spirit.

The first DARPA Grand Challenge was conducted on March 13, 2004, along a route from Barstow, California to Primm, Nevada. Fifteen fully autonomous vehicles attempted to navigate a tough course. Though none ultimately succeeded, the excitement and momentum generated by that first field test has continued to build in anticipation of DARPA Grand Challenge 2005.

Thus far, DARPA has narrowed the field of competing teams down to 40 semifinalists, who will participate in a week long national qualification event. >From September 27 through October 6, 2005, vehicles will compete on an obstacle course on the world famous California Speedway in Fontana, California. Twenty vehicles will then be chosen to run in the final race. The showcase event is open to the public and is sure to garner widespread media attention.

"The contest is set up to attract non traditional engineering talent to work on cutting edge technologies identified as crucial to national defense ," Pedersen says. "That wording attracted me, because I've always seen myself as somewhat of a misfit. After, seeing our guys getting blown up in Iraq, we'd like to help prevent needless casualties. Our vehicle and others like it, can haul supplies or materiel through hazardous areas without risk to soldier's lives. The world has been relying on machines for transportation for over a hundred years, and we use computers now for low-level decision making. What we're doing is a natural evolutionary hybrid of those things. On a more personal note, I've always been unconventional. I enjoy building machines that go, and I study the real world. I don't necessarily accept conventional wisdom saying that something is impossible. You just can't know that until you try."