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TORC Technologies, LLC, (TORC), a research and development company focusing on unmanned vehicle systems for industrial and military clients, announced that the TORC and Virginia Tech team has been awarded a 1-year $1M contract from the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop and demonstrate an autonomous ground vehicle system to compete in the DARPA Urban Challenge. The DARPA Urban Challenge (DUC) is an autonomous race through an urban environment. Teams will compete for $3.5M in prize money on November 3, 2007 at an undisclosed location. This program is an outgrowth of two previous DARPA Grand Challenges. The DARPA Urban Challenge differs from the DARPA Grand Challenges in that the Urban Challenge will take place in an urban environment and introduce dynamic obstacles such as cars and trucks. Under this contract, TORC will develop the software algorithms to enable Odin to navigate autonomously. These algorithms include mission planning, driving behaviors, motion planning, perception, obstacle prediction. TORC will implement JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) to ensure that technology developed under this contract can be ported to current and future JAUS-interoperable military and industrial systems. "TORC is excited to have received this opportunity from DARPA and continue working with Virginia Tech. We believe the Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge are rapidly accelerating autonomous ground vehicle technology. This technology trend will continue to assist our military forces by removing our soldiers from harms way," says Michael Fleming, CEO of TORC Technologies. "We look forward to the DARPA Urban Challenge and competing with the best and brightest."
