|
 INNOVATORS
— Burt Rutan, one of this generation’s premier innovators, met a new
generation of innovators at Mojave spaceport Sunday evening — a team of
talented Cornell University students building an autonomously-operated
vehicle to compete in this year’s DARPA Grand Challenge. Brian Schimpf, at
right, explains some of the vehicles’ feature to Rutan following a barbecue
at the Hansen Hangar. BILL DEAVER/Desert News
COMPUTER that guides
the Cornell University entry in the 2005 DARPA Challenge is checked by team
member Aaron Nathon. BILL DEAVER/Desert News
  CHALLENGER — Isaac
Miller at the wheel of the Cornell University DARPA Challenge entry, which
will operate by itself during the race in October. BILL DEAVER/Desert News
BY BILL DEAVER MOJAVE —
Several members of the next generation of young engineering innovators met
some veteran local innovators at Mojave spaceport Sunday evening and
everyone came away impressed. The guests were eight members of a
Cornell University team that’s testing their entry in the Defense Advanced
Research Projects (DARPA) Grand Challenge, and annual event aimed at
fostering development of vehicles that can operate autonomously.
Greeting them was SpaceShipOne designer Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites
engineer Corey Bird, and Nemesis designer Jon Sharp. All were guests at a
barbecue hosted by Al and Cathy Hansen in their hangar filled with a variety
of exotic aircraft. The DARPA event is a field test of robotic ground
vehicles that follow a lengthy desert course which will be announced two
hours before it begins on October 8th. Last year’s challenge ran from
Barstow to Primm, Nevada. Cornell’s entry, which the team and some 40
other members designed and built, has been tested on a rough and remote area
of the spaceport in recent weeks.
Picking Mojave
Asked why the team chose
Mojave for their testing, Brian Schimpf said, “The motels are cheap, it’s
comfortable, and there’s lots of room for testing!” They also received a lot
of help from XCOR Aerospace engineer Dan DeLong. Another factor is that the
spaceport is right at the edge of the geographical limit imposed by DARPA on
contestants. Team members also fell in love with the aerospace action
at the spaceport. “Every time an airplane flies by we run out and look at
it,” said Aaron Nathon. “There’s beautiful jets everywhere!” Their
vehicle is based on a light strike vehicle built by Singapore Technology
Kinetics, a sort of light-weight version of a Hummer or Jeep designed for
off-highway use. The engine is a 2.8 liter diesel built by VM Motori,
and Italian firm. An RV air conditioner purchased from Young RV in Lancaster
sits on the roof to cool the computer that controls the vehicle. Since
their will be no human operator aboard for the challenge, the computer
gathers information from devices including three lasers (labeled “Larry,
Curley and Moe”) that scan the terrain in front of the vehicle for
obstacles. Tow are fixed and the middle unit is movable.
Autonomous
Nathon explained that “it does everything on its own.” That can make riding
as a passenger during testing pretty exciting, team members remarked with
rueful laughs. So what’s the purpose of developing a robot vehicle
that can operate in rough terrain? Aside from the obvious military
applications, which explains the interest of DARPA, the Defense Dept.’s
central research and development organization which helped develop today’s
ubiquitous computers, there are also potential civilian uses.
Like mining, agriculture, and public safety, for example. “Any
dangerous application where you don’t want to send a human,” said Isaac
Miller. While the project is genuine engineering challenge, team
members said the toughest job is the one handled by a group of Cornell
students assigned to raise money for the project. “The hardest part is
explaining just what it is we’re doing,” said Nathon.
Many of the items acquired for the project have been in-kind donations where
the donors receive publicity plus some pretty exciting field testing.
Rutan impressed
“This is cool!” Rutan said as team members showed him features of their
vehicle. The creator of SpaceShipOne and numerous other aerospace
innovations was obviously impressed with the students and spent almost an
hour with them. Later, team members visited Bird’s nearby hangar to
see Symmetry, the innovative all-composite two-place, single-engine aircraft
he designed, built, and flight-tested and which numerous awards at last
year’s Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Earlier in the week the students were briefed by Sharp on his airplane,
Nemesis II.
Asked why she put on the barbecue, Cathy Hansen said, “It’s our
responsibility to help and encourage a new generation of engineers!”
Next month 40 teams will compete in semifinals at the California Speedway in
Fontana. 20 teams will be selected to compete for the $2 million Grand
Challenge prize on October 8th, where they will be handed a CD showing the
route two hours before the competition begins.
Members of the team involved in testing at Mojave include Nathan, Miller,
Schimpf, Jason Catlin, Sergei Lupashin, Pete Moran, Alan Turnquist, and Noah
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