Ghost rider

A riderless motorcycle has been developed by a team of graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley’s electrical engineering program.

The team’s ‘Ghostrider’ is one of 40 semi-finalists selected for the 2005 Grand Challenge, a 150-mile off-road race for autonomous vehicles sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration (DARPA). The first vehicle to successfully complete the 150 mile course in the October 8 competition will win a $2 million prize.

The DARPA Grand Challenge is designed to further the development of autonomous vehicle technology for the Department of Defense. It requires self-navigating vehicles to travel on rugged desert roads using onboard sensors and navigation equipment to find the route and avoid obstacles.

To guide their vehicle, the University of California team, known as the "Blue Team," chose Cognex In-Sight vision sensors over other technologies such as lidar, ultrasound and radar. The Blue Team is the only Grand Challenge competitor using machine vision as its primary guidance system.