March 13, 2004
robot grand challenge update
Well, the results of the DARPA grand challenge are in. Of the 15 teams attempting to traverse the 142 mile desert course, none of them made it more than 7 miles. 8 of them only made it "0 miles." Man, this is funny. The current (with today's technologies) impossibility of this contest reminds me of the ridiculous annual Loebner "Turing test" contests with the $100,000 reward for the first software that can fool a human into thinking it's chatting with another human.
I don't think Ian knows about the quick resolution to this morning's race yet, but I'll bet he won't regret missing it so much now. Yep - he gave up on the trip when he couldn't find anybody to go with him.
Adam will have wet dreams over this picture. And by "this picture" I don't mean the one posted here. That's just a random and unrelated photo. I'm talking about a picture from the grand challenge race.
The real juicy parts are how some of the entrants stopped.
http://www.grandchallenge.org/gallery/news/BotUpdate.doc
Vehicle 5 - Team Caltech - At mile 1.3. Vehicle went through a fence, and couldn’t come back through. Vehicle has been disabled, and the team is recovering it.
*Fences might be difficult for computer to sense. I wonder if it would be within rules to automate a brute Bigfoot truck that could go through or over anything.
Vehicle 7 - Digital Auto Drive - At mile 6.0. Vehicle was paused to allow a wrecker to get through, and, upon restarting, sensors were not able to determine the proper route. After sensors tried unsuccessfully for three hours, vehicle was disabled.
*Mental Note: Wreckers are like black cats. Don't let one cross your path. The worst that can happen is that it'd have to tow you. ..Unless you're Bigfoot.
Vehicle 10 - Palos Verdes High School Road Warriors - Vehicle has been removed from the course – it hit a wall in the start area.
*Wow. A high school had enough money and resources to get into the competition. Anyone want to brainstorm for next year's compy? Lets find an elementary school to endorse us.
Posted by: Brent on March 13, 2004 08:08 PM
Its all about the software baby! Jeez, didn't the matrix teach you anything about robot ngin eering?
I'm so jealous of you brainy cmu types.
-green w/ envy
Posted by: 4m1r on March 16, 2004 02:13 PM