Spirit of Berlin
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Spirit of Berlin was a driverless car developed by the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. The autonomous vehicle project by Freie Universität Berlin was initiated in 2007 with the participation in the
DARPA Urban Challenge The third driverless car competition of the DARPA Grand Challenge was commonly known as the DARPA Urban Challenge. It took place on November 3, 2007 at the site of the now-closed George Air Force Base (currently used as Southern California Logist ...
as Team Berlin, a joint team by the Freie Universität Berlin, Rice University, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (IAIS), and industrial partners (Micro-Epsilon, Berlin Sciences, IBM Germany, IBEO). The participating vehicle Spirit of Berlin was a 2000 Dodge Caravan, retrofitted to be controlled autonomously by a computer. It finished the DARPA Urban Challenge as one of the semifinalists and demonstrated safe unmanned driving in urban traffic. Spirit of Berlin has a modular sensor setup with most of its sensors mounted on top of the car on a flexible rack. Obstacle processing is done by a combination of Velodyne HDL-64E, Ibeo Alasca XT, Sick LMS, and stereo camera systems. In addition, the car localizes itself with an Applanix GPS/INS unit and RTK correction signals. After the Urban Challenge the focus shifted to driving in heavy traffic in crowded city environments like Berlin, Germany, itself. Spirit of Berlin handled intercity traffic, traffic lights and roundabouts between International Congress Centrum and
Brandenburg Gate The Brandenburg Gate (german: Brandenburger Tor ) is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after restoring the Orangist power by suppressing the Dutch popular unrest. One ...
. It was the first car licensed for autonomous driving on the streets and highways in Germany and financed by the
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (german: link=no, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, ), abbreviated BMBF, is a cabinet-level ministry of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn, with an office in Berlin. The Ministry provi ...
. Spirit of Berlin was also a test vehicle for semi-autonomous control, being remote controlled with an iPhone or iPad app, an eye tracking system or a Brain–computer interface. This allowed a half automated mode to be used for handicapped people to participate in normal traffic.


See also

* Driverless car * DARPA Grand Challenge *
DARPA Urban Challenge The third driverless car competition of the DARPA Grand Challenge was commonly known as the DARPA Urban Challenge. It took place on November 3, 2007 at the site of the now-closed George Air Force Base (currently used as Southern California Logist ...
* MadeInGermany
ARGO
Project on autonomous cars *
ELROB The European Land-Robot Trial (ELROB) is a European event which demonstrates the abilities of modern robots. The ELROB is not a competition, like the US DARPA Grand Challenge, but a pure demonstration of what European robotics is able to achieve ...
trials


References

{{Autonomous cars and enabling technologies Experimental self-driving cars