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DARPA Grand Challenge Updates

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the coming-right-up dept.

GraffitiKnight writes "After only 1 team managed to successfully navigate the DARPA Qualifying course, DARPA has rewritten the rules to let almost everyone compete. Wired has the story, which also mentions rumors that the race will run to 150 miles, much less than the original plans of 210 - 300 miles." Here is some earlier Slashdot coverage of the race.

14 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Not all cases are as clear-cut... by kevinatilusa · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...as the article makes them out to be.

    All the Wired article states about the Caltech and Ohio State teams is that "The squads from Caltech and Ohio State University were also allowed in, even though their drones did not complete the obstacle course. "

    From the Caltech team site: "Bob completed the test route flawlessly until the last few feet. He was stopped by DARPA officials seven feet away from the final obstacle -- although had he been allowed to continue, he may have stopped himself in time..."

    Seems close enough to me.

    1. Re:Not all cases are as clear-cut... by SiliconEntity · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Wired article was written on Tuesday night; the Caltech and Ohio State teams went ahead and qualified on Wednesday. At the time Wired was writing, it was correct that only one team had qualified. As of last night, three teams have done so. See the DARPA media page for updates on who has made it so far.

      The Wired article also speculates that even teams which don't complete the qualifier will be allowed to try the race, but I haven't seen any confirmation of that on the DARPA site. Of course, if a robot can't make it through a one mile practice track, it's unlikely to get across 150 miles of desert. But letting them try would make for a more exciting race day.

  2. 4 Teams are now qualified by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Darpa put out a press release yesterday after
    the Wired article. Three more teams have qualified:

    SciAutonics II, Team Cal Tech, and Virginia Tech

    See: http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/media_news.htm

  3. I think this article is out of date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Notice its dated 10 AM yesterday.

    The Virginia Tech team at least claims on its website that they completed the qualifying course.

    http://www.me.vt.edu/grandchallenge/

  4. More than one team has passed the QID by Pepsiman · · Score: 5, Informative
    From qid_results3.pdf:

    The results of the attempts of today's group break down as follows:

    • SciAutonics II, Team Cal Tech and Virginia Tech completed the course.
    • Team CIMAR , Team ENSCO, TerraMax nearly completed the course.
    • Axion Racing, Digital Auto Drive, The Golem Group, Palos Verdes High School, Team CajunBot, TerraHawk partially completed the course.
    • The Blue Team, Rover Systems, SciAutonics I and Team Phantasm terminated their attempts.
  5. Re:Unfortunately, Team Underbot out of the running by Ophidian+P.+Jones · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm curious- what sort of shocks were you using?

    Whether or not you do a lot of heavy duty off-roading, you should look at the higher end, heavy duty shocks for your vehicle. They may cost you a lot now, but will not require replacement down the road. The cheaper shocks will save you $$$ now, but may cost you in terms of poorer performance later on.

    I've cooled on Monroe stuff after my experiences with Monroe shocks in my father's 73 Suburban. The shocks lasted about 15,000 miles before I needed to replace them again. I've also experienced quality problems with other Monroe items, notably gas-charged struts, in the past 5 to 6 years. Maybe it's just my bad luck...

    If you don't want a gas shock, look at a Gabriel Adjustable "E" shock for all four corners. These are a hydraulic-only shock with an adjustment that allows you to set the ride from very soft to rock hard. Pay attention to the instructions, though, because if you set the shock too hard, you can rip suspension mounts. I put a pair of these in the back end of the aforementioned Suburban, and ripped one of the shock mounts off the rear axle! You can avoid this problem by having a competent welding shop reinforce the welds on the axle. Note: I do not know if these are still available, the last set I purchased was almost 6 years ago. I purchased these shocks through Super Shops, but anyone who handles the Gabriel line of shocks should be able to tell you if they are available.

  6. TerraMax photos by incuso · · Score: 3, Informative

    Photos of our vehicle: http://vislab.ce.unipr.it/terramax/

  7. Check the dates! by KenBot_314 · · Score: 3, Informative

    C'mon Slashdot!

    The official rules linked from the Wired article have not been updated since January 4, 2004.

    The rules actually refer to the field test part of the QID as a Demonstration of basic abilities. It never says anywhere in the rules that they have to fully complete the demonstration to be qualified.
    The rules have always stated that 25 teams would make it to QID but only 20 teams would actually compete in the race.

    Yet another shining example of the media trying to make news where there is none...

  8. Karma Troll: Unfortunately, Team Underbot... by SiliconEntity · · Score: 3, Informative

    I run one of the Grand Challenge teams, Team Overbot...

    This is a karma troll; it's been reposted every time we discuss this race. See http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99774&cid=8506 386 from March 8 and http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=83384&cid=7297 464 from October 23. The actual author is John Nagle, aka Animats. Please mod it down (and then you can mod this down too.)

  9. NPR news story on 3/13/2004 by redwoodtree · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here in the states NPR had a good story on one of the teams yesterday (wednesday) during their All Things Considered show. You can listen to the show here:

    NPR LINK

    The NPR Summary of the story is: At the crack of dawn this Saturday, a 200-mile race across the Mojave Desert begins. The competitors are robotic vehicles taking on the form of SUVs, dune buggies and golf carts. It's a contest sponsored by the Pentagon to spur advancements in the field of robotics. NPR's Melissa Block talks with competitor Red Whittaker.

  10. Re:how fun would it be to watch a 1 team race? by SiliconEntity · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think this was the whole idea, DARPA wants to make sure they have some kind of "race" on their hands, not just one team putting along till the end.

    Keep in mind that they're doing sequential starts. So it won't really be a race, just a long course with a few vehicles strung out one behind another. Far behind. And lots of disabled vehicles which have been shut down and pushed off the course (those few which even made it out of the starting gate).

    DARPA is setting up a live update page where you'll be able to get a map of the course and watch in real time where the vehicles are during the race.

    According to this schedule the first vehicle (which will be CMU's Sandstorm) is scheduled to depart at 6:15 AM PST on Saturday.

  11. Re:This demonstrates.. by einTier · · Score: 2, Informative
    I thought the main reason they limited the field is because tracking 200 autonomous vehicles over a 200 mile course and ensuring they don't hurt anyone during their travels is a logistical nightmare.

    But now that it looks like the vast majority of the field won't make 200 feet, it's a whole new ballgame. When you only have to watch a football field size of land, it almost becomes pointless how many vehicles are wandering around inside it. So, why not let everyone race? It appears that most won't make it very far at all, and those that manage to do so will be easy to track. The defense department also gets a added bonus in that they get to evaluate a lot of different robotic equipment and a lot of different methods of robotic navigation. Perhaps there will be something in there that no one who was invited to the qualifying rounds thought of and is quite successful.

    Just like in evolution, you never know which mutation will be the one that proves successful over time. The best way to ensure survivability or success is to have an extremely broad gene pool. If everyone shares a homogenous gene pool, then whatever environmental process destroys one stands a good chance of destroying the whole bunch. Having everyone race is a good thing.

    Plus, after today, everyone knows that Sandstorm is the best vehicle, and having a race with one vehicle isn't very much fun to watch or very useful.

    --
    -------------------------------------------------- $665.95 -- retail price of the beast.
  12. Re:Business as usual by adamfranco · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'd like you to name a bidding scandal then.

    Dick Cheney's Haliburton was awarded contracts for Iraqi oil-field work without even bidding.

    Dick Cheney's 2001 financial disclosure statement, states that the Halliburton is paying him a "deferred compensation" of up to $1million a year following his resignation as chief executive in 2000. -- from CorpWatch

    Nope, no scandal here...

    --
    "When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind." -- Bill Moyers
  13. Re:Feeds by ben184 · · Score: 2, Informative
    The company I work for is doing the official media photo coverage for the event. We update the photos daily, direct from the event.

    Here's the URL: www.tracksidephoto.com/DARPA

    There are full resolution, 6 mega-pixel images avaliable for download, but please don't take our servers down, K?