11.3.07
Odin finishes 3rd in the DARPA Urban Challenge! Victor Tango brings home $500,000 and DARPA's eagle trophy. First and second place went to Tartan Racing and Stanford, respectively.

10.19.07
Odin leaves for competition in Victorville Ca.

10.14.07
Victor Tango shows off Odin's capabilities on the roads of the Corporate Research Center (CRC). During this demo, Odin was able to merge with other traffic, detect blockages, replan a new route, and even park in the TORC Technologies parking lot!

6.29.07
DARPA visits VictorTango for the Urban Challenge qualification Site Visit.  Odin completed all four MDF runs flawlessly.  The scheduled test took 2 of the allotted 4 hours.  For a video of the event, click here.

6.28.07
VictorTango hosts advisory board members from AAI Corp, Caterpillar, Cybermotion, SAIC, and National Instruments for a demonstration and discussion of the team’s progress and plans.

6-17-07
VictorTango demonstrates Odin’s driving prowess at a cookout for the newly formed AUVSI Blue Ridge Chapter.

6-8-07
Team VictorTAngo visited Caterpillar in Peoria, IL to give a demonstration of the vehicles to Caterpillar Electronics employees.

4-26-07
DARPA gives Team VictorTango the number 32 to commemorate those that lost their lives from the VT Tragedy.

3-13-2007
Caterpillar becomes a Victor Tango sponsor! View the Caterpillar on-campus photos here.

2-18-2007
The Roanoke Times publishes an article about TORC and their role on the Victor Tango team. Click here to see the article.

News Archive

Welcome to the TeamVictor Tango Homepage

Team V ictor T ango is comprised of Virginia Tech undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and a Virginia Tech autonomous systems spin off company, Torc Technologies. The team is competing in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. This competition pushes the limits of robotics, requiring teams to develop completely autonomous ground vehicles capable of navigating an urban environment. Vehicles must be able to perceive roads, road markings, and other traffic while planning an optimal route, avoiding collisions, making three point turns, parking, and adhering to the rules of the road.

Building off previous development work, team V ictor T ango will be entering it's vehicle "Odin" into the Darpa Urban Challenge. Odin is a JAUS interoperable, drive by wire converted, 2005 Ford hybrid Escape that utilizes sensor technologies such as computer vision, laser rangefinders, differential GPS and inertial measurement.

Keep up with Team Victor Tango at the competition!
Visit DARPA's websites: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge and http://www.grandchallenge.org which will have regularly updated content on the competition and will serve as portals to the final event webcast. The Qualification (NQE) takes place from Oct. 26 - 31 and the final race happens on Nov. 3rd.

Victor Tango is in the finals! Keep up with us on our blog.

Team Victor Tango practicing at Virginia Tech's Kentland Farms. Photo taken August 20, 2007.