CMU First To Qualify For DARPA Grand Challenge

Anonymous Coward writes "As of 18:00 March 9th, Carnegie Mellon's Red Team is the only entry to successfully complete DARPA's Grand Challenge Qualification Inspection and Demonstration (QID) before the main event on March 13th. The NY Times has this article detailing this first step towards winning the Grand Challenge."

Comments

i'd be more impressed if

[theguywhosaid]

they divided your time by the cost of your machine.

its impressive when you build a mega$ robot, but a minimal robot that manages to finish is way cooler

How is this impressive?

[dave420]

I know it's much more complicated than this, but they're giving it the knowledge to navigate a route, not the intelligence to come up with its own route. Surely that's missing the whole point of this competition? I read in the last /. article that they're using a loophole in the rules to get so far.

Seeing as DARPA wants to turn this technology into a military robotic transport, I don't know how valuable it's going to be if it has to be pre-programmed with terabytes of data just to move. What about if they invade somewhere they don't have good maps of? Somewhere with a dynamic landscape (desert, rocks etc)?

I'm all for innovation, but exploiting poorly-worded rules just to win for winning's sake is an empty victory at best.

Red Team is the least impressive in some respects

[John Harrison]

Red Team is using "the best map in the world" to guide it. They have used topo maps, aerial photography, and a bunch of undergrads to painstakingly map out the terrain of the possible courses.

All competitors are given the actual route as a series of GPS waypoints a few hours prior to the race. Red Team is going to send those waypoints back to CMU, have the big iron there figure out the best course based on all the map data, and then download that course to the robot prior to the start. In a way this is cool, but it seems like they are using a loophole. A much more interesting problem would be to navigate a course that you know nothing about other than the waypoints.

The other teams are using techniques that require more onboard intelligence and route finding. The most interesting vehicle is from Cal. They have a motorcycle. Even though I went to Stanford I am rooting for the Cal motorcycle to do well since they have the most unique vehicle. Hopefully the team of Stanford alums (already dropped out) can come back next year and beat them.

picture comparison

[morcheeba]

Here's a size comparison from the Oshkosk website... their truck is 9 feet tall, a hummer is 6 feet.

Re:Interesting, but ...

[Belisarivs]

But let's face it, this contest isn't about finding cheaper ways to haul cargo or reach remote locations.

Sure it is. Logistics are a *huge* problem for the military, especially one that moves as fast as America's. Remember in Gulf War II that some of the most public incidents of American losses involved supply convoys, not front-line forces.

With this sort of technology, supply-lines become more like conveyor belts than masses of convoys. They elminate the need to teams of humans to transport fuel, water, ammunition, etc. to the front lines. This increases the pool of human resources available to the military for other jobs, while eliminating the worry of casualities inflicted by enemy interdiction missions.

Sure, automatic tanks will logically be a followup, but I think the military's mid-term goal is automating the logistics.

AW&ST February 23rd...

[mykepredko]

You might be interested in knowing that, according to AW&ST, the army/air force in Iraq has found in many cases that it is more efficient to transport cargo within Iraq via C-5, instead of 12 large trucks.

The reason was because the loading and unloading areas could be secured but not the highways in between.

Check out the February 23rd Issue.

myke