<< Back to News page
Imagine this scenario: A fallen soldier stranded in enemy terrain. She has successfully radioed her position, but it’s too risky to send additional troops in to bring her home. Sounds pretty dire, but all is not lost.
Enter Chrome, the Raytheon-led Team Scorpion entry in this year’s Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Ur¬ban Challenge. The fully autonomous vehicle is the brainchild of a group of engineers from Raytheon and its partners – Preferred Chassis Fabrication, iRobot, the University of Arizona and Tucson Embedded Systems. One of their main goals: To build Chrome so that it can overcome risk and help bring home the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday.
Team Scorpion has passed its first milestone in a bid to make the above scenario a reality, but now the real fun begins. This time around, DARPA has made a number of changes to the competi¬tion. No longer a race through the desert, this year’s winner will have to navigate an urban setting in keeping with the new reality of warfighting.
The 60-mile course and its multiple missions must be completed in six hours, but there is a catch: No humans or remote control allowed. Chrome, along with other entries, must rely solely on its on-board technology to win. Between now and the November 2007 finals, Team Scorpion will be putting the finishing touches on Chrome and testing it in a deserted New Mexico ghost town. The prize for success is bigger than just winning what has become a de-facto cult race. The real prize and major business opportunity comes from being able to help the military fulfill its congressional mandate to have 30 per cent of its fleet be robots by 2015.
"The Little Car That Could Win Big, and Help Save Lives", Raytheon Business Development Monthly Newsletter, January 2007
<< Back to News page
The Little Car That Could Win Big, and Help Save Lives
Imagine this scenario: A fallen soldier stranded in enemy terrain. She has successfully radioed her position, but it’s too risky to send additional troops in to bring her home. Sounds pretty dire, but all is not lost.
Enter Chrome, the Raytheon-led Team Scorpion entry in this year’s Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Ur¬ban Challenge. The fully autonomous vehicle is the brainchild of a group of engineers from Raytheon and its partners – Preferred Chassis Fabrication, iRobot, the University of Arizona and Tucson Embedded Systems. One of their main goals: To build Chrome so that it can overcome risk and help bring home the men and women who put their lives on the line everyday.
Team Scorpion has passed its first milestone in a bid to make the above scenario a reality, but now the real fun begins. This time around, DARPA has made a number of changes to the competi¬tion. No longer a race through the desert, this year’s winner will have to navigate an urban setting in keeping with the new reality of warfighting.
The 60-mile course and its multiple missions must be completed in six hours, but there is a catch: No humans or remote control allowed. Chrome, along with other entries, must rely solely on its on-board technology to win. Between now and the November 2007 finals, Team Scorpion will be putting the finishing touches on Chrome and testing it in a deserted New Mexico ghost town. The prize for success is bigger than just winning what has become a de-facto cult race. The real prize and major business opportunity comes from being able to help the military fulfill its congressional mandate to have 30 per cent of its fleet be robots by 2015.
"The Little Car That Could Win Big, and Help Save Lives", Raytheon Business Development Monthly Newsletter, January 2007
<< Back to News page