UL Lafayette’s Team CajunBot is being featured in a Discovery Science series that started July 14.
The five-part series Robocars highlights 10 teams which competed in the Department of Defense’s 2007 Urban Challenge in California last October. The series airs on Mondays with the exception of the series conclusion on Tuesday, August 12. All episodes will be shown on the Discovery Science Channel (Cox Cable digital channel 101).
Team CajunBot was introduced in the July 14 episode but will be featured prominently in the second episode set to air Monday, July 21 at 9 p.m. Episode 2 is expected to replay Tuesday, July 22 at midnight, 4 a.m., 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
The team can also be seen in Episode 3 set to air Monday, July 28 at 9 p.m.
In addition to UL Lafayette’s Team CajunBot, the series follows teams from Stanford University in California, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, Perrone Robotics in Virginia, Gray Matter Inc. in Metairie, Golem Group in California, Oshkosh in Wisconsin, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
Subsequent episodes on July 28, Aug. 4 and 12 will follow teams as they qualify for the semi-finals and ultimately the final race in Victorville, California.
The show was produced by Marabella Productions from New York. Crews first filmed Team CajunBot during a site visit at Cajun Field with Urban Challenge officials last June. The crew picked up the team again in Victorville.
Team CajunBot made it to the semi-final rounds of the autonomous vehicle race but failed to qualify for the final race. Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Racing were the winners of the 2007 Urban Challenge.
Team CajunBot has competed in all three challenges sponsored by the DoD. The team competed with the original CajunBot - a six-wheeled ATV - for the first and second challenges. It competed with CajunBot II - a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon - in the 2007 Urban Challenge.
Visit www.cajunbot.com to see photos from the Challenge and to get more information on Team CajunBot.