LOGAN, Utah — October 3, 2006 — Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI) announced today that they have been awarded a $1 million Track A contract to participate in DARPA’s 2007 Urban Challenge.  Out of over 60 proposals from robotic systems developers world wide, ASI is one of only 11 winners of DARPA funding to enter a vehicle in what has been dubbed “The Great Robot Race”.  ASI is the prime contractor on a team that includes Sarnoff Corporation, DeVivo Automated Systems Technology, and even a division of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.

Out of these 11 winners, ASI is the only small business to have been awarded a prime contract.  “Most of the other winners are large academic research institutions or R&D divisions of large companies”, says Mel Torrie, ASI’s CEO, “We’re a small business that has been quietly fielding autonomous vehicles in practical applications like agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and military training.  It’s exciting that our capability, coupled with an incredible team of complementary partners has put us in such elite company.”

Autonomous Solutions has fielded over 100 autonomous vehicles for customers such as John Deere, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, the Army Corps of Engineers, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, the Israeli Police Force, and the US Air Force, as well as customers in the mining and manufacturing industries.  The DARPA Urban Challenge enables the company to leverage its existing technology, as well as to develop and perfect new technologies which until now have been more experimental.  “We are excited to win this award since it is so complementary to our ongoing programs in agricultural automation, open pit mining, and military targets and training vehicles.  The technology developed for the Urban Challenge will enable us to serve our current customers better as well as open up new markets for autonomous vehicles”, says Mr. Torrie.

For more information on Autonomous Solutions, Inc., please contact:

Autonomous Solutions, Inc.
1946 South 1600 West
Young Ward, UT 84339
Telephone: 435.755.2980
Facsimile: 435.752.0541

About Autonomous Solutions, Inc.
ASI has extensive experience in the design and automation of large scale vehicles and machinery with a primary focus in the area of unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs).  ASI’s patented command and control software product MobiusTM is based on the JAUS standard and enables complex path planning, sensor fusion, precision vehicle control, and point and click ease of use.  JAUS, the Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems, is a robotic command and control standard developed for Department of Defense robotic systems, and is equivalent to the civilian SAE-4 standard.

Beyond the Department of Defense, ASI has automated a wide variety of vehicles (from 2 to 240,000 lbs) for use in dull, dirty, and dangerous environments.  Some of the vehicles ASI has converted for unmanned use include the Triton Predator, various John Deere tractors, the John Deere Gator, the Bobcat 334 mini excavator, the Bobcat ToolCat, the TAGS Wolverine, the Kubota RTV900, and many other commercial vehicles.  ASI has delivered unmanned vehicle systems to DOE, DOD, Army Corps of Engineers, Northrop Grumman / Remotec, John Deere, and Goodyear.