Team Caltech 2005 DGC SURF

Public DGC sites Team Caltech 2004 Documentation

The goal of this project is to win the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, an autonomous vehicle road race scheduled for 8 October 2005, with a grand prize of $2M. The project will consist of 20-30 undergraduates working as a team to design, build, test and race a fully autonomous vehicle capable of navigating itself in off-highway environments and travelling a distance of up to 175 miles in 10 hours or less. Students should have a strong background or interest in computer science, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Freshman, sophomores and juniors are all encouraged to apply.

The schedule for the DGC SURF is non-standard due to the timing of the race. The project schedule for the summer is:

• 13-17 Jun 05: SURF orientation and summer field test #1 (at El Mirage dry lake bed)
• 18 Jun - 4 Jul 05: vacation
• 5 Jul - 16 Sep 05: SURF project - all participants must be available during this period
• 17 Sep - 26 Sep 05: final preparations for national qualifying event (optional)
• 27 Sep - 7 Oct 05: National qualifying event (NQE), hosted by DARPA
• 8 Oct 05 - RACE DAY

Participants in the DGC SURF will be expected to participate in the 13-17 June orientation and field test, as well as the 5 Jul - 16 Sep project period. Participation in the final preparations, NQE and race is optional but encouraged.

2005 SURF Pre-Application

More information on Team Caltech is available on the public web sites listed at the top of the page.