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.

Team V ictor Tango

Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech's team is made up of undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. The undergraduates are a mix of seniors fulfilling their capstone design requirements, technical elective students, and student volunteers. Students are organized into design teams working on many vehicle subsystems ranging from drive-by-wire implementations to world perception algorithms. Each design team develops their system from concept to hardware implementation, giving them hands-on experience with the latest technology and cutting edge robotics.

Faculty

• Team Lead: Dr. Charles Reinholtz

• Dr. Al Wicks

• Dr. Dennis Hong

• Dr. William Carstensen

Graduate Students

Undergraduate Students

TORC Technologies

In partnership with Virginia Tech, TORC Technologies is under subcontract to develop key software technologies for the VictorTango ODIN entry in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. As the prime subcontractor, TORC developments include:

• 3-D simulation environment for conducting software-in-the-loop testing

• Traffic path prediction algorithms for multi-lane multi-car scenarios

• Advanced localization filtering algorithms in GPS loss scenarios

• Motion planning algorithms for an Ackerman steering vehicle

• Driving behavior algorithms for multi-lane multi-car scenarios

• Situation classifier algorithms multi-lane multi-car scenarios

• Software architecture based on JAUS (Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems) for algorithm implementation

TORC Technologies, LLC was founded in 2005 by a group of highly motivated and applied Virginia Tech faculty and graduate students with a desire to develop new technologies and commercialize existing technologies developed within academia focusing on intelligent robotics for government, industrial and commercial applications.

Advisory Board

Team VictorTango has identified leaders in the robotics community and associated industries to serve as advisors on the VictorTango Advisory Board. While not official team members, this group enhances the VictorTango team by bringing experience and a broad knowledgebase. They will assist in identifying key technologies and testing and planning strategies applicable to overcoming the numerous scenarios expected in the DARPA Urban Challenge.

General Dynamics Robotic Systems

Cybermotion, Inc.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems, AAI, Inc.

Barron Associates, Inc.

General Motors

Virginia International Raceway (VIR)

Caterpillar Inc.

National Instruments

Ford Motor Company