Four robotic vehicles finished a Pentagon-sponsored race across the Mojave desert and achieved a technological milestone by conquering steep drop-offs, obstacles and tunnels over a rugged 212km course without a single human command.
The vehicles, guided by sophisticated software, gave scientists hope that robots could one day wage battles without endangering soldiers.
"The impossible has been achieved," cried Stanford University's Sebastian Thrun, after the university's customized Volkswagen crossed first on Saturday. Students cheered, hoisting Thrun atop their shoulders.
Also finishing was a converted red Hummer named H1ghlander and a Humvee called Sandstorm from Carnegie Mellon University. The Stanford robot dubbed Stanley overtook the top-seeded H1ghlander at the 164km mark.
"I'm on top of the world," said Carnegie Mellon robotics professor William "Red" Whittaker, who said a mechanical glitch allowed Stanley to pass H1ghlander.
The sentimental favorite, a Ford Escape Hybrid by students in Metarie, Louisiana, was the fourth vehicle to finish Saturday. The team lost about a week of practice and some lost their homes when Hurricane Katrina blew into the Gulf Coast.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, plans to award US$2 million to the fastest vehicle to cover the race in less than 10 hours. The taxpayer-funded race was intended to spur development of robots that could be used on the battlefield without remote controls.
The race announcer did not immediately declare a winner because 22 of the 23 robots left the starting line at staggered times at dawn, racing against the clock rather than each other. Stanley finished in less than 7 1/2 hours.
Race officials planned to resume the race yesterday so the sole remaining vehicle, a mammoth six-wheel truck, could compete in daylight.
The so-called Grand Challenge race is part of the Pentagon's effort to cut the risk of casualties by fulfilling a congressional mandate to have a third of all military ground vehicles unmanned by 2015.
Last year's much-hyped inaugural robot race ended without a winner when all the self-navigating vehicles broke down shortly after leaving the starting gate. Carnegie Mellon's Sandstorm chugged the farthest at 12km.
Of the 23 robots that competed on Saturday, 18 vehicles failed to navigate the entire 212km course, but most still managed to beat Sandstorm's mileage last year.
The unmanned vehicles must use their computer brains and sensing devices to follow a programmed route and avoid hitting obstacles that may doom their chances.
Vehicles have to drive on rough, winding desert roads and dry lake beds filled with overhanging brush and man-made obstacles. The machines also must traverse a narrow 2km mountain pass.
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