5 October 2005

Grand Rapids, Michigan -  The fully robotic "NaviGATOR" vehicle, developed by engineers from Smiths Aerospace and the University of Florida's Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics (CIMAR), finished as a top contender following a week of qualifying rounds for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Grand Challenge and is now advancing to the final stage of competition.

One of only twenty-three teams to make it to this level (from an initial pool of 200), the NaviGATOR will participate in the final endurance race across the Mojave Desert on October 8. The Grand Challenge entrant who completes the 175-mile race first, and within the 10-hour timeframe, wins a $2 million prize and the potential to help the U.S. government overhaul its combat fleet.

"We are extremely proud of the team and the challenges they've had to meet in order to reach the final stage of the competition," said John Alber, vice president of engineering development at Smiths Aerospace. "However we finish, the experience we've gained through this DARPA contest has helped us grow our expertise in autonomous navigation and robotic technology - areas vital to the future of military/commercial transport."

Smiths is the title sponsor of Team CIMAR and is participating in the contest to further develop the navigational technologies it currently provides on the military's Sentinel, Avenger, Humvee and M1A2 manned vehicle platforms. The U.S. Army has said that by 2015, it expects at least 30 percent of the land vehicles it purchases to be fully autonomous.

Smiths is approaching the navigational challenges of the DARPA Grand Challenge differently than its competitors. While other teams have equipped their vehicles with pricey navigational technologies used for aerial combat, Smiths has opted for a lower cost inertial navigation system integrated with a precision GPS receiver that is well-suited for navigating desert terrain, yet is a fraction of the cost of ring laser-based systems.

"It just makes sense to use technologies that successfully get the job done, yet do so in a cost-effective way," Alber said. "With the dual responsibility of being a leading-edge technology provider and also the steward of our customers' resources, Smiths works to employ this strategy in everything we do - including our role on the NaviGATOR."

"After going head-to-head with a number of strong teams in the qualifying round, we are even more confident in the NaviGATOR's abilities," said Dave Armstrong, project manager of Team CIMAR. "When the Mojave Desert's dust settles on October 8, we would not be surprised in the least to find the NaviGATOR among the top finishers."

Other Team CIMAR members, in addition to Smiths, include Autonomous Solutions, Inc., of Utah and The Eigenpoint Co., of Florida. To track Team CIMAR's progress, please visit http://cimar.mae.ufl.edu/grand_challenge.

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About CIMAR

Founded in the 1970s, the Center for Intelligent Machines and Robotics (CIMAR) is an interdisciplinary research group centered in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. CIMAR aims to be a leading center for interdisciplinary basic and applied research related to the many aspects of robotics. Specific research strengths include: hardware/software system development; three dimensional geometry and kinematic analysis of robotic systems; screw theory as applied to position and force control of robot manipulators; real-time computer graphics simulation; integration of computer systems.

Team CIMAR is a collaborative team of academia and industry, working to develop autonomous ground vehicle subsystems in order to compete in the DARPA Grand Challenge. The team participated in the inaugural 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge in March 2004 and now is one of 43 teams that have been accepted to parti