USAO’s Team Nova Represents Midwest in Nationwide Robot Race
 

CHICKASHA – When the green flag waves this fall at America’s DARPA Urban Grand Challenge race, Chickasha’s Dr. John K. Johnson hopes to lead the pack of robotic racers. The scientist and professor of computer science at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma has assembled Team Nova to build a completely autonomous vehicle to compete in the international event.

The third in a series of robotic vehicle races sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Urban Challenge opens the new race to anyone who builds a robotic vehicle to traverse through city traffic.

The Urban Challenge is designed to put hand-modified robotic vehicles through 60 miles of city streets and interact with traffic and signals while obeying state driving laws – all without the help of a human driver or GPS. It’s all part of a new mandate by Congress to have 400,000 robot-driven military vehicles on the road by 2015.

To that end, Team Nova has already begun the conversion process on their 2002 Ford Escape. With a gutted interior, welded-in equipment racks, hardware for operating steering, gas, brakes and an impressive collection of cameras, sonar equipment and laser radar, Team Nova is about to go public.

Chickasha residents will soon see Johnson’s driverless vehicle test-driving west of the USAO campus in preparation for a rigorous string of tests. In June, representatives from DARPA are scheduled to visit Johnson’s team for an exclusive site evaluation. If successful, Team Nova could be selected by DARPA to compete in the final race in November.

Nearly 200 teams across the globe began the application process last year, with 89 making the first cut. DARPA’s new list of Top 53 teams from six countries was announced May 10, which delighted USAO President John Feaver.

“This puts USAO in the top third of all competitors for the DARPA prize,” Feaver said. “John Johnson’s extraordinary research, and his long commitment to classroom teaching and involving students at every level, is an amazing story in itself. Their selection by DARPA isn’t surprising, because their work has gained national attention before. But their breakthrough research taking place Oklahoma’s public liberal arts college – not at a research giant – that’s amazing.”

The location of the race will remain undisclosed until immediately before the race begins so as to discourage GPS mapping for vehicles.

The payoff? A $2 million cash prize to the first-place winner, $1 million to second place and $500,000 to third place.

To Johnson, it’s not about the money.

“Would the money be nice?” he asked. “Sure, but the real prize is getting our technology out there and proving that we can do it.”

Although many teams have corporate sponsors like Google, Red Bull and Lotus, Johnson said his small-college team has what it takes to pull it off.

“Some of these guys have millions of dollars and large staffs of 30 working full-time on their cars,” he said. “I think we have the stuff to do it, even on a limited budget, with limited resources. We can hang with the big dogs.”

Team Nova is a small crew of computer gurus and technology buffs hand-picked by Johnson himself. Each member is either a current USAO student or a recent graduate from Oklahoma’s public liberal arts university.

Three 2006 USAO graduates head up the team, with Ryan Horn and Jason Gruber as hardware engineers and programmer Gene Pool. Jeffrey Davis and Dwain Hembree, computer science seniors, also are programmers for Team Nova.

An electrical engineer with a penchant for artificial intelligence (A.I.) research, Johnson has been designing operator-independent machines and software using adaptive behavior for years. For Johnson, the Grand Challenge is just a fun excuse to put his A.I. experience to the test.

“We’re doing this because it’s fun, and because we can,” Johnson said. “The Grand Challenge isn’t the end-all, but it’s part of the direction we’re going.”

Critics may argue, why Chickasha? To Johnson, the question is, “Why not Chickasha?”

“Most people think you have to live near Silicone Valley, Boston, Cambridge or somewhere typically famous for software ingenuity,” he said. “In reality, we can do all the same things right here in Oklahoma. We want to get the attention of the nation that, hey, something exciting is happening here in Chickasha and that Chickasha is up-and-coming.”

Team Nova represents more than Oklahoma alone. With the closest entries more than 300 miles away, and no entries north of Oklahoma, Team Nova reflects much of the Midwestern United States.

More information about Johnson’s team is available online at www.usao.edu/softthought and www.usao.edu/~sthought.

The DARPA Grand Challenge website is www.grandchallenge.org.

NEWS RELEASE       May 21, 2007
UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND ARTS OF OKLAHOMA - CHICKASHA
CONTACT MICHAEL BENDURE, News Bureau, 405-574-1362, mbendure@usao.edu
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