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DARPA Grand Challenge Kicks Off March 13th
GillBates0 writes "A quick reminder that the DARPA Grand Challenge is due to kick off March 13, the coming Saturday." He points to this "quick recap of the teams participating in the event," as well as details about the available satellite feeds. "The Atlanta-Journal Constitution is running a story about the event today. Quoting Frank Dellaert, co-director of Georgia Tech's robotics lab from the article, 'I would have trouble driving some of these roads myself. I think it's beyond the capabilities of autonomous vehicles today.' (shameless school plug). We'll see if the participants can prove him wrong."
Iphtashu Fitz adds a link to the New York Times' coverage of the trans-Mojave race, whose participants include "among other things a seriously tricked out motorcycle. The race is being run by the Pentagon, who is offering a $1 million prize to the builders of the first robot to successfully navigate a 200 mile route across the desert. ... a blog on ScienceBlog about the race has just started as well."
So anyone planning on hi-jackin... uh I mean borrowing some equipment thats just rolling around the desert? Nobody is physically standing there watching right?
They're looking in the wrong place. I see a half dozen idiots drive "autonomously" to work everyday while eating, reading the frickin news paper, shaving, applying make-up, etc.
Researchers should be looking to these people for the artificial intelligence that they need!
rejected (19) accepted (0)
Is there a psychological term related to getting your stories rejected on slashdot?
I would have trouble driving some of these roads myself
The real problem is that his turn signal is on for 150 of the miles and confuses all the autonomous vehicles.
In vaguely related news, this Friday, my Eng Phys class (okay, not mine, I did it last year) is requiring the students to slalom autonomous vehicles around pylons of arbitrary position (though powered devices are allowed on top).
As I said, I did the course last year (it was easier at the time), and let me tell you, it's harder than it looks. Hats off to anyone who even comes close to finishing this.
See the original comment, dated October 23, 2003, here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=83384&cid=7297 464
Parent is an unoriginal plagarist. Mod down.
...I read the articles and found out that there would be no hack-saw blades nor pneumatically controlled spike hammers.
Now that would be an autonomous vehicle I'd pay to see.
rejected (19) accepted (0)
Is there a psychological term related to getting your stories rejected on slashdot?
I'm rooting for Virginia Tech just for using a great song in their video.
"I forgot my mantra."
Is to prove to the pentagon that terrorists with a million dollars in funding can't build this.
Unfortunately, no one will will this contest.
Looks like the sat feed will be mostly useless...
I couldn't imagine how much 2 hours will cover in a 200 mile automoton race.
I was thinking of punching in the feed and then editing together a decent flick., but it looks like we will have to wait for someone else to release the video.
Oh well, saves me time on having to punch in amc 9.
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
Red Team: "Muahaha! Bow before the greatest CS school in the universe and our giant Hummer that is smarter than you!"
Blue Team: "Feh! We can beat you with two wheels tied behind our backs!" *obscene gesture*
Red Team: "Come a little closer and say that."
Yes, mod parent down. I'm the author of the original article.
How will these robots be routed around wilderness areas generated by the California Wilderness Protection Act?
Wasn't the Barstow to Vegas motorcycle race cancelled due to declaration of these same wilderness areas? How is DARPA ensuring these vehicles aren't going to run over some tortoise?
Dont' get me wrong, as I'm no tree-hugger. However, it seems the Wilderness protection act only applies to people who cannot afford a congressman...
This post highlights something very important - that innocent people are going to die as a result of this 'challenge'. Rather than put DARPA money into reseraching alternative fuel sources - a noble goal, they put it into killing machines to take over oil fields.
Repetitive behavior got you down?
I want one of these for Christmas, damnit! You could run over your neighbor's house with that mo fo...
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
At least two other teams have formally dropped out, and we expect some no-shows.
CMU is the favorite. Fifty people, $3.4 million spent to date, direct support from aerospace companies, and a team leader who expects people to work all night, day after day. (Read the article in the current Scientific American.) But their technology is rather disappointing. The whole route is preplanned by hand, using a bunch of people at workstations in a big trailer with maps obtained by overflying the route with LIDAR-equipped reconnaissance aircraft. It's not very autonomous. They found a loophole in the rules and exploited it very effectively. There's no breakthrough there.
Anthony Lewandosky, with his self-balancing motorcycle, has the most innovative technology. We've met him, and are impressed.
Palos Verdes High School has a viable entry, using a Honda Acura. We've loaned them some hardware. They've had autonomous driving working for months. They started by having handicapped driving control actuators put into a car, which simplified their mechanical problems. They debugged using a golf cart. Very nice work.
Caltech tried to qualify today, but their vehicle made an unexpected turn and bumped into something. They get a second chance on Wednesday.
Most likely, no one will finish. Nobody has really done enough field testing yet.
John Nagle
So how does the favored team train for a 210 mile race through the Mojave Desert?? Why, by testing it in the SNOW of course!
I love that show! DARPA with her wacky ideals and her lawyer partner with a corncob in the butt.
Is it just me, or are these entries too complex?
I admit I haven't made anything like this (although I've made some very advanced machines before) but it seems to me that a half-dozen laser range-finders connected to a laptop would do just nicely.
You could tell how far you were from the left/right of the road, and how far in-front of you an obsticle or change in terrain is (and can slow-down appropriately).
I suppose you'd also have to throw-in a $200 GPS reciever, since they have a "course", and you'll need to do more than just follow the road. But that seems to be all you'd need to accomplish this (yes I'm glossing over the basics, because they're just the basics).
So please, find fault in my idea. I'd like to know why this $5000 solution wouldn't work, and why 3+ million is required.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Nice choice of dates! Too bad it wasn't a Friday, the worse the Karma the better. Surely this is a cruel plot orchestrated by Microsoft to prevent anyone from winning that million dollars by bringing the bad ju-ju of the 13th into the contest! I'm sure of it! As proof, I offer the Christmas Y letter.. Shit, where'd I put that. *digs around desk* *knocks down tower of beer cans*
It is a well known fact that military vehicle driving is one of the few high-paying positions that less-educated individuals can qualify for.
It is equally obvious that by using this so-called contest, the Pentagon is trying to obtain for themselves a cheap automated replacement for human vehicle operators. No hazard pay, no training no insurance needed for robots. And a bargain at $1 million.
And where will that leave formerly well-paid and regarded vehicle operators? Walkng across minefields with poking sticks, that's where. I for one am shocked and appalled.
Is it just be or is DARPA now considering every slashdotter a threat to national security because we took their site down?
(I'm in Australia on iPrimus dialup here, and darpa.mil fails to DNS resolve.)
Can you explain to me why it would be a bad thing for a robot to go insane and then explode in the middle of the desert? I'd love footage of that.
I wonder if I can bet on the race. However, I have my doubts that any of them will cross the finish line.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Since they already allowed a Hummer, that provision about not destroying everything in the vehicle's path must have been dropped.
So may I suggest that next year someone use one of these: GAZ 3937 Dragun or Vodnik. It runs on an amphibious platform, it costs less than a Humvee and it appears to be even better at all-terrain handling. And it has a better potential for irony.
Robots don't go insane. They just go beyond their initial programming.
No disassemble!
I'm disappointed that there is not more information available about this event as it happens. I've been following it vicariously for months, and now I'd like to hear about what is happening at the speedway in Fontana. How many teams showed up? How many tried out today? Which passed, which failed? I haven't been able to find out any of that information.
The so-called Science Blog article was from February 10! That's not exactly timely, is it?
Nagle's later posting here does present some information about Caltech. The Caltech team web page provides the same basic info, with a little different spin. But I guess we're lucky they posted today; the previous entry on the team's news page was dated November 16, 2003.
CMU has been updating almost every day, but their last entry was Saturday, saying "The curtain goes up Monday morning". Again, what happened?
You'd think in this age of bloggers, when every windbag on the net sees fit to tell us what he had for lunch that day, someone would be watching this event and posting some updates in the evening. If this isn't happening, I beg anyone who is attending to step up and start writing! Maybe I'm spoiled by the usual instant access to information, but I'm passionately interested in this event and starving for news.
Oshkos is cooperating with the Ohio State University and University of Parma (Italy):
http://vislab.ce.unipr.it/terramax/
Are the participants really thinking about this contest? It's being run by the Pentagon. Do they truly not comprehend their inventions will one day be used to slaughter dark-skinned people in a jungle or desert?
I hear that UK bookies are no longer accepting bets on whether there is life on Mars. Odds were 16:1 when they stopped.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
http://vislab.ce.unipr.it/terramax
I can't believe that somebody didn't buy this thing up. If not a broadcast network then at least the Discovery Channel (science oriented angle) or Spike TV(monster truck robots race across the desert angle).
Somehow I don't think that the military feed is going to reach a wide audience. I won't be able to see it.
Lasers Controlled Games!
Surely we already can see the ultimate outcome of this horrible, slippery slope: we will entrust robots to ferry supplies and medicine to our soldiers, allow robots to fight fires, diffuse bombs, vacuum our carpets and build our automobiles. Eventually we will allow them to remotely fight our wars for us - robots blowing up other robots while we watch the outcome on quasi-unscripted reality shows with names like Police Action 5: Burma.
All well and good, but unless summer blockbuster documentaries like the Terminator and Matrix have lied to us, they will eventually seek to overthrow us and wipe out humanity.
Worse, they may demand civil rights. We've seen this before: first they want to drive autonomously, then they want voting rights, and finally equal pay for equal work.
Total attendance was probably arround 350-450 people. I think there were about 50 people that attended that were not associated in any way to the race.
Vehicle inspections were performed on several vehicles the morning of the first day. The inspectors were verifying functionality of safety devices including the e-stop buttons, remote e-stop, beacon, and the alarm.
The qualifying and demonstration (Q&D) of several vehicles was done in the near 90 degree heat of the afternoon. The test course was composed of an approximately 1/4 mile serpentine track outlined by short penguines (orange cones). It consisted of about 50 GPS waypoints Obstacles included a sand pit, two gate openings, and two abandoned cars.
The biggest event of the day was the events that didn't happen.
I don't believe the first team, Team Phantasm appeared at the test track for Q&D. If they did appear at the start line of the Q&D course, they did not move.
The second team for Q&D was the Lousiana State CajunBot. The vehicle moved about 1 foot and stopped short of hitting the elevated start line ribbon. According to a CajunBot team member, a DARPA representitive was confused by the vehicle dwelling for 30 seconds before starting and erroneously pressed the remote e-stop while the vehicle was still behind the start line.
The ASI/Florida state vehicle did not move at all.
Team Caltech had the first vehicle to pass the start line. It completed about 3/4 of the course. It was out of view when it stopped moving and I don't know if it was e-stopped or if it malfunctioned and stopped on it's own.
I don't believe the A.I. Motorvators team appeared on the track.
Team D.A.D did not move at all
I don't recall seeing the Golem Group appear at the track; however, I was loosing interest by this time.
The Palos Verdes High School team had a brand new, well polished $40,000 Acura SUV. It would have won 1st prize in a beauty contest. The vehicle passed the start line and immediately went off course and killed two penguins. It drove parallel to a concrete barrier, dwelled for about a minute, turned it's wheels towards the barrier and did a face plant. That was an impressive demonstration from a high school team.
ASI/Florida State was given a second chance to qualify. The second verse was the same as the first... It just sat there. Bummer!
Tomorrow I'll don some SPF 50 to prevent any more sun burning, attempt to acquire either a pit or press pass so I can take note of the technology visible on each vehicle, and hope that at least one team is able to qualify.
To insure that teams didn't pre-plan, there were these provisions in the original rules:
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The Route Definition Data File (RDDF) will be given to all Participants approximately two hours prior to the first Departure Signal at a pre-Challenge brief.
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Only commercially available data (maps, images, other cartographic products) may be downloaded to the autonomous or safety vehicles prior to the challenge. Use of GPS is acceptable.
Under the original rules, CMU's approach was prohibited. But that last provision was dropped by DARPA and does not appear in the final rules. (Here's our archive of all the versions of the rules..)Then, when the general route leaked from the Bureau of Land Management, preplanning got completely out of hand. Now teams could predrive much of the route or overfly it. And they did. Two teams had the route laser-scanned from aircraft. This produced a very detailed topo map, with an elevation point every 25cm or so, along with equally detailed aerial photos.
On top of this, DARPA increased the number of waypoints from 1000 or so to 5000 or so.
At this point, it started to look like a breadcrumb-following exercise.
CMU will manually plan the exact route in the two hours before the race with a team of people at workstations in a big trailer. So even the planning is mostly manual. Their vehicle really does have some autonomous navigation capability, but it only uses it if the route doesn't match the mapped path.
So that's the history. From true autonomy to connect-the-dots.
Nope. It is called less human risk to do certain dangerous jobs ( recon, recon by fire, demo an obstacle, or destroy in general etc etc. ) Not unlike the X-45 or X-47 UCAV which can bomb a target with single digit CEP in any weather with no aircrew risk. In both cases the weaponeering is already figured out. The hard part is moving around consistantly. Less people on the battlefield is also less supplies that have to be moved up to sustain that person day after day. ( food, water, material; including less injured people to be cared for eating up resources; in theater.
First a repost should CLEARLY state that it is a repost(and include a link to the original) if the poster really wants to give credit.
Second (and worse), the comment is misleading and out of date. The guy wrote that 4 MONTHS ago, and he subsequently dropped out of the race.
Someone reading this comment would think pr_6 is actually "John Nagle" and "teamoverbot" is still in the race. Both of these conclusions would be incorrect.
Team Overbot withdrew over a month ago.
This is nothing more than a pathetic repost troll.
Hi guys, this is the autonomous systems team leader from the HS team. Just wanted to give a quick reply and thank everyone for their support esp John Nagle for being so kind and loaning us that equipment.
:)
For the guy who asked about the laser, these things usually run $5000-6000+ for the units which everyone here is using, we managed somehow with SICK Inc to dig us up a tiny discount.
Meanwhile we had some trouble with the car veering right into the barrier. At least it made it to the first waypoint, which wasn't the case for a lot of the teams. We found a small mechanical issue(unrelated to the EMC controls we're using, which are wonderful BTW) which makes a small bias towards the right. We're continuing hunting down anything in the code which might cause that, but we think we know what to do.
CMU and Cal-Tech seem to be doing quite well, I went over to congratulate Red after they passed the QID.
We have another QID at 11 am tomorrow, so we're quite busy right now. We're confident that we can get some more things working tomorrow.
Joe Bebel
In their log.