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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.
best web host ever
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!
from the article (you did read it right?)
Navigation
Only commercially available data (maps, images, other cartographic products) may be downloaded to the autonomous or chase vehicles prior to the race. Use of GPS is acceptable.
There are only two things in this world that smell like fish. And one of them's fish...
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)
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'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.