A City-Driving Robotic Car Named Tommy Jr.
TS-5925

In October 2007, 35 select teams from around the world were invited as qualifiers to the DARPA Urban Challenge, a high-stakes race of autonomous self-driving robotic cars through a mock city. The vehicles not only had to self-navigate and avoid obstacles but also had to merge with traffic, park in crowded parking lots, and obey California driving rules such as how to navigate busy intersections. Any maneuvers you might go through in driving from your home through a city to a shopping center and back, these vehicles had to do with no driver on board and no one operating a remote control.

This presentation is about the technology behind Tommy Junior, the race's 100 percent Java technology-based vehicle, down to the silicon. It discusses Tommy Junior's use of Java technology for implementation of its driving rule set, Sun Java Real-Time System for deterministic controls, and embedded Java technology for low-level feedback controls. In addition to an overview of Tommy Junior's architecture, the session includes specific code samples illustrating the use of Java technology for implementation of Tommy Junior's driving rules and real-time deterministic decisions. It also presents external and in-car video as well as exciting tales from the trenches of the DARPA Urban Challenge, taking attendees through the life of a robot as it tries to find its way to the finish line.

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