Alice: An information‐rich autonomous vehicle for high‐speed desert navigation

Abstract This paper describes the implementation and testing of Alice , the California Institute of Technology's entry in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Alice utilizes a highly networked control system architecture to provide high performance autonomous driving in unknown environments. Innovations include a vehicle architecture designed for efficient testing in harsh environments, a highly sensory‐driven approach to fuse sensor data into speed maps used by real‐time trajectory optimization algorithms, health and contingency management algorithms to manage failures at the component and system level, and a software logging and display environment that enables rapid assessment of performance during testing. The system successfully completed several runs in the National Qualifying Event, but encountered a combination of sensing and control issues in the Grand Challenge Event that led to a critical failure after traversing approximately 8 miles. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.