Raytheon team qualifies for DARPA robo-vehicle event

"Team Scorpion," a group of engineers led by Raytheon Missile Systems and its partners - Tucson Embedded Systems, Preferred Chassis Fabrication, iRobot and the University of Arizona - have officially qualified as an "A-track" participant in the 2007 DARPA Grand Challenge, a robotic vehicle competition conducted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The DARPA Grand Challenge is a field-test competition aimed at encouraging the development of autonomous ground vehicle technology that could eventually be used to save American lives on battlefields.

Unlike past Grand Challenge events, which were held in remote desert locations, the 2007 event - the DARPA Urban Challenge - calls for robotic vehicles to conduct military-type missions in a mock urban area completing a 60-mile course through traffic in less than six hours. The vehicles must also navigate themselves entirely with on-board technology, using no human- or remote-control.

"Raytheon's sponsorship of this key technology development is an effort to promote advancement of autonomous vehicles for the battlefield," said Russell Mikesell, program manager for Missile System's Urban Challenge. "Raytheon is committed to developing solutions for minimizing casualties, whether on the battlefield or in complex urban environments."

The fully integrated Team Scorpion vehicle will be built from Preferred Chassis Fabrication's rock-crawling Scorpion vehicle and powered with a variety of electronic and digital controls that can be used in military and homeland security applications as well as a variety of industrial commercial markets.

The Scorpion vehicle will be built using "best-in-class" products and components from each partner. Raytheon Company will provide sensor technology and Tucson Embedded Systems will provide the vehicle management system. iRobot, based in Burlington, Mass., will equip the Scorpion's vehicle management system with navigation and control logic, and the on-board modeling and simulation will be outfitted by the University of Arizona.

Raytheon Company, with 2005 sales of $21.9 billion, is an industry leader in defense and government electronics, space, information technology, technical services, and business and special mission aircraft. With headquarters in Waltham, Mass., Raytheon employs 80,000 people worldwide.

For more information on Team Scorpion, visit http://www.team-scorpion.com/. For more information on DARPA's Urban Challenge, visit http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/index.asp.