DeviceMaster 500 DARPA Application Story

Challenge

The Lone Wolf is a roboti c vehicle created by Insight Racing and is an entrant in the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge. The race is part of a congressional-mandated research initiative to ensure that by the year 2015, one-third of military vehicles will functi on autonomously in an effort to help isolate troops from roadside threats. The Lone Wolf’s programming, which allows it to maneuver in traffic with no human assistance, also provides many opportuniti es for enhancement of future automobiles.

Diagram of DeviceMaster Technology in Driverless Vehicle

Technology Solution

This unmanned, computer-driven Lotus Elise employs forward-thinking technology like Comtrol’s DeviceMaster® which is instrumental in coordinating the car’s complex system of sensors necessary for autonomous operati on. Comtrol’s DeviceMaster allows real-time data to be fed from vehicle sensors to on-board computers, enabling the Lone Wolf to react to intersections, other moving vehicles and traffi c laws. Minneapolis, Minnesota based Comtrol’s data communicati ons products are widely used to connect and control peripheral serial devices in industrial automation applicati ons, military sensor devices, process control and manufacturing automati on devices, and transportati on/traffic monitoring and control systems.

“We are pleased to have Comtrol as a sponsor. Their highly-reliable DeviceMaster helped us build a robust solution by delivering high-speed communicati on between sensors and our central processing,” said Grayson Randall, team leader for Insight Racing. “Comtrol’s products made it easy to communicate with all sensors and computers and gave us great application versatility and added redundancy to our systems. The DeviceMaster is an outstanding product.”

Jeff Wuendry, product marketi ng manager for SICK, provider of the sensing system on the vehicle, further explained how this sophisticated vehicle is able to operate autonomously. “The SICK Laser Measurement System (LMS) Sensors are one of the key components of the navigation system, helping the car to ‘see’ using innovati ve laser radar technology,” Wuendry said. “The LMS relies on Comtrol’s DeviceMaster to enable real-ti me communicati on of terrain and obstacle data to the Lone Wolf’s multi ple computer systems.”

The Urban Challenge was held November 3, 2007 and is the second ti me Comtrol, SICK, and INSIGHT Racing have collaborated on anautonomous vehicle. At the Grand Challenge in 2005, Insight Racing’s original vehicle , the Desert Rat, placed 12th of 109 participating vehicles. In the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge Insight placed in the top 35 semi-fi nalists out of an original 89 teams involved.

“We’re thrilled to be part of this important collaborati on with Insight Racing, and parti cipati ng in an initiative to help save lives in military combat is an honor,” said Bradford Beale, Comtrol vice-president of global sales. “We’ve off ered innovative data communications products to military and industrial applications for a quarter century, but with this and many more applicati ons in queue, we’ve really struck a chord with modern culture. We’re excited to see how this technology may effect each of them individually, as well as change the way we think of transportati on as a whole.”