6. Parked Vehicles, "Tank Traps" and Hay Bales

Most of the DARPA Grand Challenge qualifiers managed to avoid parked vehicles. For almost all the fake "tank traps" were not much of a problem. Hay Bales were another matter.

Parked Vehicles

Grand Challenge contestants must avoid all parked vehicles.

Several parked junk cars and minivans were strewn around the field. While they were easy obstacles to detect, some of the robots collided with the cars. Team Cornell's vehicle, Spider, bumped a car, but kept going. Back at the garage, the team proudly showed me the "battle damage", which was a two inch paint smudge on the rear driver side panel.

Tank Traps

Overrated "Tank trap" placed just before the finish line.

Many of the teams had considered the tank trap, a new addition for this year's race and qualifications, to be worst obstacle. In the end, it may be the most overrated obstacle on the course, with many vehicles avoiding it or simply pushing it out of the way. DARPA, perhaps mercifully, made their tank traps out of wood and covered them with a reflective coating - A real tank trap is made of dense metal. Terramax, the 32000 pound truck, hit and flattened a tank trap in the practice area without missing a beat.

Desert Buckeye's vehicle goes slightly airborne after going over the tank trap.

The ION (Intelligent Off-road Navigator) vehicle from the Desert Buckeyes team hit the tank trap in the home stretch of one of the qualification runs. The trap caused two of the vehicle's wheels to come off the ground, but ION continued on to finish the race.