MIT Students Create Car That Drives Itself

BOSTON -- Thirty-six teams from across the country are getting ready to compete in the ultimate robot challenge. Creating a robotic vehicle that can travel in any urban setting is the goal of the DARPA Urban Challenge.

NewsCenter 5's David Brown reported that one team from MIT is in overdrive as they shift their vehicle in high gear.

The Land Rover LR3 is decked out with $400,000 worth of gizmos and gadgets. Fifteen radars, 13 remote sensing lasers -- called lidars -- and six cameras feed a computer that will ultimately drive the car.

After 16 months of design, development and construction, the MIT team is headed to California and the DARPA competition. Sponsored by the Department of Defense, the challenge is to develop a car that drives itself in traffic.

"To have a robot that can drive in traffic, that just captured our imagination. We felt then that this is an impossible challenge. It's very, very difficult. That's why we were drawn to it," MIT professor John Leonard said.

The team is made up of electrical and mechanical engineering students and students in computer science. They took the every-day task of driving and taught it to a computer.

"We take for granted when we look out our windshield -- there's a car, there's a car and we know exactly how fast it is going. It's really very hard for a computer," MIT student Edwin Olson said.

This is where the technology comes in. Out in front are lidars that can see distance and range. On top cameras, radars and lasers are scanning, too. The information is fed inside, where the computer accelerates, brakes and steers. Complicated driving maneuvers are solved, and the car can make driving decisions.

Although it is for a national competition, it does have real-world application. The military is interested in the robotic technology, and automakers want the computer software.

"They are interested in putting this technology into cars for active safety -- so not replacing the human driver, but trying to prevent accidents," Olson said.

The competition could net MIT a $2 million prize.