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By Putting Their Heads Together, They Built A Hands-Off Car

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By MEGAN HUSSEY, Tribune correspondent

Published: December 1, 2007

It's a long way from New Port Richey to the Mojave Desert, but Gary Stein and a team from the University of Central Florida made it that far this month, as they put their unmanned Knight Rider car up against the best in the country.

The New Port Richey native's team emerged from a field of 200 to compete in the finals of the DARPA Urban Challenge in Victorville, Calif. For the past three years, DARPA - the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - has challenged teams from around the world to build autonomous ground vehicles capable of completing simulated military supply missions. For the finals, vehicles had to safely complete a 60-mile urban course in six hours or less, autonomously obeying traffic laws while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections and avoiding obstacles.

TeamUCF finished seventh out of 11 teams vying for a $2 million prize, which went to a team from Pittsburgh. The second- and third-place teams took home awards of $500,000 and $250,000.

For Stein, 25, who served as his team's software engineer, the competition offered a challenge for his engineering skills.

"This sounded like an interesting project I wanted to be involved in," said Stein, a doctoral student in computer engineering. "I've been involved in robotics for five years and am president of the UCF Robotics Club."

After making it to the semifinal round in last year's DARPA competition, Stein returned to help transform a 1996 Suburu Outback into a self-controlled car. This time, his main responsibilities were path planning, throttle control and simulation, according to the TeamUCF Web site.

Using a complex system of laser scanners and sensors, the car can be programmed to steer, brake, park, go forward and backward without a driver.

"The car can be programmed not to run into things, which is helpful," Stern said, with a chuckle. "The car can detect obstacles like lanes, curbs, other cars and places where the road is blocked. Using a preprogrammed map, the car knows the road network of each course and can merge into traffic."

The $160,000 car, co-sponsored by Coleman Technologies and UCF, represented a big step for Stein.

"We've been working on the car for about 18 months," he said. "I've also entered smaller competitions with small autonomous cars, boats and submarines."

The competition should provide a boost for Stein, who plans to make his career as a robotics engineer.

"Like the Internet has been recently, robotics is the future of technology," he said. "It will inspire people to do great things. I'd love to be involved in the renaissance of robotics in the future."

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