Go Little Ben! Go! — Local team in DARPA Grand Challenge Finals

Posted on | November 2, 2007 | Comments Off

The Ben Franklin Racing Team — comprised of engineers and students from Penn, Lehigh and Lockheed Martin — have made it to the finals of the the DARPA Grand Challenge Part 2: The Urban Challenge.

From Technology Review:

At a press conference on Thursday, Tony Tether, the director of DARPA, said that one of the obstacles that the robots must face could be a traffic jam. Ultimately, he said, the winner will be the car that completes the courses with the best time but still qualifies for a California driver’s license.

Their Prius, Little Ben, will be up against some big competition — the complete team list here – including the last winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge, Stanford.

There are quite of few trucks and SUVs in the 11-team field. I know that the Penn-Lehigh-Lockheed team was a bit nervous working with a smaller car (some worries about clearance and being able to see, if I remember correctly), but it seems a number of their competitors are working with small(ish) sedans (including a couple of Jettas there, it appears). Hopefully, nimble and fuel-efficient (specifically hybrid) will prevail over lumbering and gas-guzzling.

Hey, at least one local team has made it to the finals!

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