When Ben Klaber '05 wants to work on his thesis, he heads out to the Street to finish the Prospect 11. But instead of hitting up the eating clubs, he heads to a garage in the E-quad.
Klaber, along with 30 other students and advisers, is building an autonomous ground vehicle — a vehicle that can navigate without a driver or remote control — that they have dubbed "Prospect 11."
It is part of the 2005 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge, which has a top prize of $2 million. It will culminate with a race in October, consisting of a 175-mile obstacle course over desert terrain, which autonomous ground vehicles must complete within 10 hours.
On Monday, the group learned that it has made another round of cuts, leaving it as one of about 100 teams remaining. Judges will visit campus to see Prospect 11 in May.
The group's car, a donated GMC truck, uses computers and a GPS receiver to locate the position of the destination points. This system makes it possible for Prospect 11 to avoid obstacles in its path.
The group developing the vehicle consists mainly of engineering students and computer science majors, who average 15 hours a week on the project but sometimes log up to 40.
"A lot of teams have professional engineers or professors helping a lot, while ours is basically student run," Klaber said. "I think it's a great opportunity for undergraduates."
The students chose the name because " 'Prospect 11' is obviously very Princeton and it sounds like Apollo 11," said Ben Klaber '05, a member of the control and software team. "And we hope to have the car drive down Prospect Avenue by itself some day."
DARPA began the competition in 2004 to encourage research and development of autonomous ground vehicles.
No one successfully completed the course to take home the $1 million prize, so the contest is being held again this year.
Out of the 200 teams that applied, DAPRA chose one hundred for site visits on the basis of vehicle specification sheets and a five-minute video submitted to DARPA representatives. Eventually, the field will be narrowed to 25 teams that will be invited to the October race.
"If we pass the site test, then there are a few more deadlines that we have to get by," said Mike Pasqual '05, who leads the image processing team. "But I'm pretty confident that we can make a good stab at getting to the race."
Regardless of the outcome, Klaber said, the group has learned a great deal from the experience.
"Instead of writing a thesis in a carrel, we've gotten to work in a team, working with our hands," he said. "We've done most of this from our own ideas, learning from each other."
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