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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.

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 I think this article is out of date by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative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

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

  6. 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...

  7. 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.)

  8. 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.