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  DARPA Project News
Team Tormenta takes on the challenge of the NQE

Tues 10/4/05 On the final run at the NQE course, the Black Pearl once again clears the tunnel but once again fails to find its way. After turning back and forth and driving out of the corridor, the Black Pearl is disabled, ending Team Tormenta's run at the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Mon 10/3/05 - The Black Pearl makes it through the tunnel and successfully re-acquires GPS but is unable to properly re-establish direction and once again steers toward the now beefed-up tire stacks.

Sat 10/1/05 - The Black Pearl wavers leading into the hay bales and again gets entangled.

Fri 9/30/05 -The Black Pearl passed 20 gates on the second run including passing through the tunnel. Our Jeep Cherokee celebrated by immediately driving over a 3 foot high bundle of tires that lined the course at the exit. As a testament to the quality of the competition this year, despite the improvement, there are now 21 teams that have done as well or better than Team Tormenta.

Thurs 9/29/05 - Team Tormenta is 19th out of 43 teams after the first round of trial on the Qualification course. The Black Pearl passed 15 gates before being stopped by hay bales at the entrance to the 100 ft tunnel. Hopes are high and the team is working overtime to prepare for the second round.

Team Tormenta successfully traverses more than 1.1 km autonomously reaching speeds up to 15 mph
 
08/01/2005
With the Challenge nearing, Team Tormenta is making steady progress. Visit the media page to see the Black Pearl in action.

Support Team Tormenta by purchasing team logo merchandise
 
07/29/2005
Visit the Team Tormenta store here.

Team Tormenta Named 2005 Grand Challenge Semifinalist
 
06/06/2005
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) today announced the 40 teams selected to advance to the semifinals of the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous ground vehicle competition. The 40 teams will compete head-to-head in the National Qualification Event (NQE) at the California Speedway in Fontana, September 27 to October 5, 2005 where 20 of the 40 teams will be selected to compete for the $2 million prize in the Grand Challenge event, scheduled for October 8, 2005." Team Tormenta was selected from a field of 118 entrants. Check out the full article here.

The Black Pearl performs well at the DARPA site visit
 
05/09/2005
Representatives from DARPA arrived for our team's site visit. The vehicle was required to traverse a 200m course with randomly placed obstacles, and performed nearly flawlessly, staying within most course boundaries and bumping only one obstacle throughout four runs. Check out the new video in the media section.

Promotional Video posted for Team Tormenta
 
03/11/2005
For those interested in Team Tormenta, check out our new Promotional Video of The Black Pearl's controls, sensors, and gas, brake and steering actuation.  If you are interested in sponsoring Team Tormenta, please contact Joe Bebel at bebel@teamtormenta.com

Team Tormenta Submits Application Video
 
03/11/2005
DARPA has confirmed that they have recieved all five application parts sucessfully. To celebrate, we're posting a sample clip from our application video: fully autonomous waypoint navigation.

The Black Pearl Officially Unveiled
 
02/19/2004
Following Team Tormenta's application into the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005, Team Tormenta is proud to unveil our entry vehicle. The deep black Jeep Cherokee Sport was chosen after much careful consideration, and we have decided it meets all of our main requirements.

Team Tormenta Officially Enters DARPA Grand Challenge 2005
 
02/11/2004
After submitting parts one and two of the official DARPA Grand Challenge Application, Team Tormenta is readying to submit their team video, part three. We thank all our generous sponsors for making this possible.

Sensor Test Platform Operational
 
12/4/2004
The Sensor Test Platform is now operational! The Digital I/O Subsystem now has a fully functioning output pathway and our relay controllers are now functional.

Sensor Test Platform Obtained
 
11/24/2004
A crucial component of our testing plan, the sensor test platform will allow sensor and navigation software to be tested independently from the chellenge vehicle.

Paper Presented at ITSC'04
 
10/4/2004
Two members of Team Tormenta, Joe Bebel and Tej Patel, presented a paper along with Nathan Howard at the Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference 2004 in Washington, DC. The paper covered the autonomous system they developed as part of the Palos Verdes High School team for the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge.
The paper is posted here(pdf).

Team Tormenta Announced
 
8/14/2004
At the DARPA Grand Challenge competitor's conference, Team Tormenta begins its public search for sponsors and supporters.



Team Tormenta