RI | Seminar | January 27, 2006

Robotics Institute Seminar, January 27, 2006
Time and Place | Seminar Abstract | Speaker Biography | Speaker Appointments

---

Perspectives on Autonomous Desert Driving

Mike Montemerlo

Stanford University

Webcast

View the seminar.

Time and Place

Mauldin Auditorium (NSH 1305)
Refreshments 3:15 pm
Talk 3:30 pm

Abstract

On October 8, 2005, the government hosted the second running of the DARPA Grand Challenge, an off-road, autonomous robot race across the Mojave desert. Stanford's focus in perparing for this race was predominantly on software. Our robot, named "Stanley," was endowed with a modular software architecture that combined techniques from the off-road driving field with new ideas in the area of machine learning, probabilistic perception, and real-time planning and control. I will explain some of these innovations in depth, and discuss some of our successes and failures in preparing for this historic challenge.

Speaker Biography

Mike Montemerlo received his BS and MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 and his PhD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University in 2003. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, where he was the Software Lead for Stanley, Stanford's winning entry in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

Speaker Appointments

For appointments, please contact Janice Brochetti (janiceb@cs.cmu.edu).

---

The Robotics Institute is part of the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University.