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DARPA's prizes program hit a snag but rebounded like hopefully NASA's and the DOE's will (especially if we take action):

"DARPA Raises Stakes for Urban Robot Race"
CNET News.com
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/business/stories/164065.html

DARPA has granted prize money of $3.5 million for its milestone urban
robotics race next November, a far cry from its previously planned
trophies.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has approved prize money
for the first three finalists of its 2007 Urban Challenge after a
confusing twist in the government agency''s right to grant monetary
awards, organizers said Friday.

DARPA will now grant $2 million for first place, $1 million for second
and $500,000 for third. But the agency dropped award money for "Track B"
teams, or those roughly 78 teams (out of 89 teams total) competing
without government funding, according to DARPA spokeswoman Johanna
Spangenberg Jones. Instead, those teams, which could have won
supplemental prize money of up to $150,000, will race for the main prize
money.

When the 2007 Urban Challenge was first announced in May, DARPA said it
would dole out more than $2 million in prizes to the robotics teams that
could navigate mock city terrain over a set time. But DARPA presumably
lost its granting authority with the passage of a congressional act--the
John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2007--which gave money-granting power to another government agency,
Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. So at the time,
instead of awarding $2 million for first prize, $500,000 for second and
$250,000 for third, DARPA said it would simply give out trophies to the
three finalists.

But after much complaint from contestants, Kenneth Krieg, undersecretary
of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, approved the prize
money.

The race will see as many as 90 teams "drive" an unmanned robotic road
vehicle through city traffic, competing to finish a 60-mile course
within six hours. Set for November 3 of next year, the challenge will
call on robots to safely obey traffic laws, negotiate busy
intersections, merge into moving traffic, avoid obstacles and navigate
traffic circles.

DARPA has yet to disclose the race location, but has said it will be in
the western United States. The government research group didn''t unveil
the 2005 Grand Challenge location in the Mojave Desert until weeks
before that race, in order to avoid giving any team an advantage.

Despite the prize money, the teams will undoubtedly have a hard time
finishing the 2007 Urban Challenge, the first race of its kind. Of the
23 teams that competed in the 2005 desert race, only four teams'' robots
completed the 131-mile course in the allotted 10-hour time. The year
before, no teams finished the challenge.

Particularly difficult for the robots next year will be the complexity
of the urban environment. That''s because robot sensors can easily
stumble because of unknown objects or stimulus. "Stanley," for example,
the robotic SUV that was the 2005 Grand Challenge winner from Stanford
University''s Racing Team, got confused when a flock of birds fluttered
up in front of the vehicle during the race. The vehicle spun its wheels
in several directions before the birds settled down and it could proceed.

Excitement is building for next year''s race, nonetheless. Among the
teams racing are the Stanford Racing Team, Team MIT from Cambridge,
Mass., and a group called "A Bunch of Dropouts" from Kingman, Ariz.
Students from North Carolina State''s College of Engineering plan to
race a modified Lotus Elise in next year''s race.

"With less than a year until the National Qualification Event, teams
will soon begin road-testing their vehicles," Norman Whitaker, DARPA's
Urban Challenge program manager, said in a statement.

DARPA set out several years ago to foster new technologies for unmanned
vehicles in the military, under a mandate from Congress. The government
has required that 30 percent of Army vehicles be autonomous by 2015 to
save lives on the battlefield. And it approved research funds to be used
for a series of races, including the Urban Challenge.