DARPA Grand Challenge - A History of Insight Racing      

Dr. Grayson W. Randall
Thursday, September 13, 2007
4:00 PM ~ 5:00 PM
Harris Engineering Center 101

Abstract:

The DARPA Grand Challenge and the current DARPA Urban Challenge are events sponsored by the US Government to help promote the development of autonomous land vehicles. Autonomous land vehicles are full size vehicles that have no human drivers and are not remotely controlled. They operate totally on the sensors and computers contained on and within the vehicle. The government is looking to meet a congressional mandate to have 33% of military ground vehicles operating autonomously by the year 2015. To meet this mandate, the Grand Challenge series of races were born. With a $2 Million 1st place prize in the balance, teams from all over the world competed in a 130+ mile desert race in 2005 and are preparing for a 60 mile Urban race in 2007.

Insight Racing was formed to compete in the Grand Challenge series. They have participated in all three Grand Challenge events, including being a finalist in 2005 Grand Challenge and recently becoming 1 of 36 semifinalist teams for the 2007 Urban Challenge. This talk will explore the preparations and participation in the 2005 Grand Challenge including actual footage from the National Qualification Event and Finals. The presentation will also explain the rules for the upcoming Urban Challenge and will also explore the new obstacles created by the urban event. Pictures and video abound in this presentation.

Bio:

Grayson Randall is the team leader of Insight Racing. He is responsible for the overall system design and architecture of their Grand Challenge entry. Grayson started the team in early 2003 in response to the initial DARPA Grand challenge. Grayson is a senior software engineer at IBM. He has 25 years experience in systems design and architecture. At IBM, he has worked on projects involved with manufacturing automation, digital video processing, set top box designs, as well as network processors for high speed network communications. He is currently involved in PowerPC processor development. Grayson's work includes 9 patents and several publications. Prior to IBM, Grayson had 5 years experience in the development of commercial and military flight simulators. Grayson holds a BS in Aerospace engineering from Parks College of St. Louis University. He is chairman of IEEE Robotics and Automation chapter for Eastern North Carolina. He has also been a mentor for a FIRST high school robotics team which won 1st place in the 2004 international FIRST competition as well as numerous other awards.