Blue Team Robot: "Ghostrider" Body: Motorcycle Affiliation: Entrepreneur/student volunteers from UC Berkeley Hometown: Berkeley, CA Leader: Anthony Levandowski Team size: 6 Budget: $193,000 Key technologies: Control system to balance motorcycle; automated landing gear for self-righting; stereo vision Biggest challenge(s): "Writing software to teach the robot to fight gravity ... and finding enough time to sleep." Race results: Did not qualify What they're up to now: Levandowski has joined ENSCO to lead their robotics and unmanned systems efforts by developing robot simulation software for vision and lidar. The other team members are finishing their Ph.D.s. Where the vehicle is now: The vehicle is being kept in a secret location while being modified to run on a different manufacturer's chassis. The software is being ported to run on a traditional 4WD vehicle to help stability, and the simulator is being used to test new algorithms. |