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TerraMax (vehicle)
Encyclopedia
University of Parma
The University of Parma is one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in the 11th century. It is organised in twelve faculties. The University of Parma has currently about 30,000 students.-History:...
's Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory
VisLab
The Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory of the University of Parma is the artificial vision research laboratory of University of Parma, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione....
and Rockwell Collins
Rockwell Collins
Rockwell Collins, Inc. is a large United States-based international company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, primarily providing aviation and information technology systems and services to governmental agencies and aircraft manufacturers.- History :...
, also known under the name of Big Truck Robotics, that participated in both the 2004 and 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge
DARPA Grand Challenge
The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense...
.
Navigation
To navigate the terrain, the vehicle utilized three LIDARLIDAR
LIDAR is an optical remote sensing technology that can measure the distance to, or other properties of a target by illuminating the target with light, often using pulses from a laser...
laser-ranging units (one of which featured four planes), three cameras, and two GPS navigation systems.
Maneuvering
During the 2005 DARPA Grand ChallengeDARPA Grand Challenge
The DARPA Grand Challenge is a prize competition for driverless vehicles, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the most prominent research organization of the United States Department of Defense...
the vehicle encountered a minor windstorm which blew tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
A tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, disengages from the root and tumbles away in the wind. Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster. The tumbleweed habit is most common in steppe and desert...
s across the road. This confused the vehicle as it tried to maneuver its bulk around each individual tumbleweed. Around 5:00 in the afternoon, TerraMax arrived at the second tunnel, causing miscalibration of the sensor suite. After this, the vehicle consistently pulled to the left, but arrived safely at the finish line.