Team Mojavaton (pronounced “mo-HAH-vuh-tahn”) was Western Colorado’s entry in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge and will also be for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. In 2005, we were honored to be chosen as one of 23 finalists to participate in the race from among 195 teams who originally applied. 

The DARPA Grand Challenge (DGC) is a race for unmanned, autonomous vehicles. Each vehicle contains a computer system, a variety of sensors, and GPS localization equipment necessary to drive the vehicle without any human intervention. Unlike the Mars Pathfinder and the Predator drone, it is not remote control. Once the cars are switched into autonomous mode, they completely control themselves. No one is in the car and humans can only follow and watch from a distance. Hence, our Team Mojavaton tag line:  “The lights are on, but nobody’s home.” 

The DGC was the brainchild of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of Arlington, Virginia in response to the Congressional mandate of 2001 that by the year 2015, 1/3 of military combat ground vehicles must be capable of autonomous driving.  The reasoning behind this mandate was simple – to save soldiers’ lives.  A complete system to satisfy this mandate did not exist, so DARPA was tasked with  generating the research and development that would eventually produce a system capable of meeting this goal. Realizing that what was required was “outside the box thinking,” DARPA created the Grand Challenge race and opened it up to everyone (the team leader must be an American citizen). Their intention was to attract entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, programmers, college students and professors, and anyone else willing to devote time to an historic and worthwhile technical adventure.

The first Grand Challenge ran on March 13, 2004 in Barstow, California. It offered a $1,000,000 prize to the team whose vehicle could complete a 150 mile course through the Mojave Desert in the fastest time under 10 hours. 15 vehicles lined up at the starting line and the best car ( from Carnegie Mellon University ) traveled 7.3 miles before driving off the left side of the road and getting stuck. The other 14 didn’t make it that far so the $1,000,000 prize went unclaimed that first year.

Some skeptics in the press laughed and called the event a failure.  Fortunately for our soldiers, DARPA was wiser than these naysayers and could appreciate the progress that was being made on a very difficult task towards the ultimate goal. So DARPA reprised the event and the second Grand Challenge was scheduled for October 8, 2005 in Primm, Nevada. This time, the prize was $2,000,000.  Team Mojavaton was not involved in the first event, but we quickly formed our team and applied to participate in the second race as soon as it was announced in April 2004. 

Stanford University won the $2,000,000 prize by finishing the 132 mile desert course in just under 7 hours.  Four other teams also crossed the finish line.  They were the two Carnegie Mellon teams, Gray Team from Louisiana, and Team TerraMax from Wisconsin.  The other 17 finalists who were selected to race (including Team Mojavaton) broke down or got stuck somewhere shy of the finish line.  Our vehicle, a Nissan Xterra, was driving very well and had passed 10 vehicles who had started earlier when the throttle stepper motor failed and the computer had no way to activate the throttle. Our vehicle coasted to a stop at an uphill grade at mile 23 (still in the middle of the road). We salute Stanford University for winning the race and the 4 other teams whose vehicle also completed the course. You can read more about last year’s event in the “2005 Grand Challenge Archive” tab of this website and on the DARPA website: www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge

On May 1, 2006, DARPA announced that there would be a third Grand Challenge race. It will occur on November 3, 2007 at an “undisclosed location in the western U.S.” It will consist of a 60 mile course on primarily paved roads, but this time, the vehicles will have to drive in traffic. They will have to stop at stop signs, look for other vehicles, obey the rules of precedence at intersections, obey traffic laws (don’t cross double yellow center lines), pass other stationary and slow moving cars,  back up, park, make a U-turn and plan a new course when the main road is blocked, and take evasive action if a collision with another vehicle is imminent. Sort of makes a 132 mile drive on a closed course in the desert seem like a walk in the park.

Team Mojavaton has committed to participate in this next race. We will use our existing Nissan Xterra, renamed the White Knight, that ran last year’s event. We are modifying the sensors and the electronics to meet the different needs of the next mission. In last year’s event, our Xterra had to pass other cars, but they were always stationary. This year, the software will have to identify and track other vehicles in motion and be able to predict their future path. It will have to pass slow moving cars and understand traffic in intersections. It will need a “taxi algorithm” that enables it to weave its way through a maze of parked cars. It will be more polite than some human drivers and will not honk its horn as it drives. 

The 2005 Grand Challenge was an incredible adventure, and with the generous assistance of our corporate sponsors, we were able to produce a very competitive vehicle. We were the first car to attempt the 2.2 mile obstacle course at the semi-finals at the California Motor Speedway and our Xterra completed the course on its first run.  Ron Kurjanowicz, the DARPA 2005 Grand Challenge Project Manager and now the DARPA Chief of Staff, was later quoted as saying, “When the first team out of the chute—Mojavaton, a team out of Colorado—made it successfully around the 2.2-mile qualification course, I knew right there and then that we had something special.”  We felt it too.

We are already hard at work preparing for the next race.  On Saturday, November 3, 2007, we will be at some as yet “undisclosed location in the western U.S.” We will drive the White Knight to the starting line, switch it into autonomous mode, get out, close the door, and watch as it drives away into history. 

©2007 Team Mojavaton
2186 West Morrison Ct.
Grand Junction CO 81503
970-241-0097

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