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DARPA Autonomous Robot Race Rules Announced
NASAKnight writes "Remember the slashdot story a while back about the DARPA Autonomous Robot Race? Well, they were supposed to post initial rules and information in September, but they were late. They just came out today, so take a look."
From the rules: The goal of this competition is for the race vehicle to complete the course as fast as possible. Interfering with other race vehicles will not be allowed.
I think they just ruled out 90% of the best bot designers in the US. I mean, who wouldn't want to see Toro or Ronincharge up on some weinie scientist's bot and tear it to pieces?
Maybe this will spark a new arena for bot-combat.
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How would you get the robot to know where it has to go?
Two solutions present themselves immediately to me: either program the whole route into the robot, or have some sort of beacon where the robot will know to go to. Anyone else have any ideas? Could GPS help?
At first:
There is no size, weight, or propulsion limit on the ground vehicle; the nature of the course will dictate practical limits.
Okay...
1) flamethrowers
2) one of those dumptrucks with the eight foot tall tyres
3) more flamethrowers
Then:
The goal of this competition is for the race vehicle to complete the course as fast as possible. Interfering with other race vehicles will not be allowed.
Man! I thought this was DARPA. They go soft while I was out?
Now if they only had 10 hours to do it and an expert in fissionable material... That's a Scrapheap I'd watch!
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
The vehicles must not damage the environment or infrastructure.... The course will consist of on-road and off-road sections over a range of approximately 300 miles between Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV.
We drove this stretch of road last year on vacation, stopping at various national parks along the way. Contrary to first impressions, the desert is very much alive and in many places has an extremely fragile ecosystem - some groundcovers can take forty years to regrow because of the harsh environment.
They're either going to stay on-road or they're going to damage the environment. There's very little in-between.
(there's very little in between Palm Springs and Las Vegas, too, but that's another mind-numbing story)
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
... specifying the desired results, and inviting everyone to bring their best solutions (as opposed to the stifiling RFP process).
There are really two prizes here, the cash prize for first place, and the subsequent contracts, which may not go to the fatest, but to various good ideas found in various entries.
I hope they televise it
The race is in 2004, I'm going to have to wait more than a year for this event! Maybe this will turn into a tv show, as with what seems to be the current techno-driven trend in new programming.
But I think that some of the network execs should get serious and spend some serious money. Wouldn't it be cool to hold a race like this on Mars, or the Moon!
That would be wicked! And with the advent of privately funded space delivery contests like the X-Prize, the race could be made into a veritable interplanetary decathalon! Its a few steps down the road, but hey, why not?
--"The perfect example of the man of action is the suicide." - William Carlos Williams
It would also be beneficial if your robot can pass it self off as human and count six card blackjack.
Only single independent, untethered ground vehicles are eligible.
Damn it!
I was going to enter one of my spare Tomahawk cruise missles in the race!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I'd say this one calls for a party.
I'm impressed that DARPA is doing this. Automatic driving projects have been around for years, most of them out of CMU, but this will force the issue. Now it really has to work.
"Vehicles must be unmanned (no humans or other biological entities onboard) and autonomous. They must not be remotely driven. "
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Well there goes my entry, I was going to have it run by an artificial brain.
"The entry must be a ground vehicle. That is, it must remain in contact with the ground at all times except for short duration jumps of less than 5 seconds."
Right...a vehicle with all the important bits onboard that can do rough terrain and not run out of fuel...and can also stay in the air that long. Just what kind of course is this? Are parachutes allowed?
http://avdil.gtri.gatech.edu/AUVS/IARCLaunchPoi
Now here there is a more interesting challenge. Build an aerial robot for one of three missions, and you don't have to be an American citizen.
Not to be bitter, but that is a shitty rule. I'm a dual citizen myself but they might have issues excepting an entry from a team that consisted of a Canadain/American residing in Canada and 3 or 4 other Canadians.
I'm only posting 'cuse I don't want to study for exams.