Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

DARPA Announces Grand Challenge 2005

Posted by michael on from the calling-all-cars-calling-all-cars dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Grand Challenge 2005 Date has been announced for October 8, 2005. Check out DARPA's official webpage for details. Already several teams from last year are gearing up: Carnegie Mellon Red Team, D.A.D., and Cal Tech. Also, several new teams are entering, among them Stanford, and Florida Tech. Should be a very interesting Challenge next year!"

17 of 164 comments (clear)

  1. We'll see... by darth_MALL · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Should be a very interesting Challenge next year!" ...more so if anyone finishes

    1. Re:We'll see... by robslimo · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yah. GH 2004 was such a whopping success that my brother and I started toying with the idea of entering (or at least attempting to enter) the challenge. We've got an old VW dune buggy, a webcam, a couple of old PII notebook computers, plenty of bailing wire (we're in Oklahoma, no duct tape for us) and a few distros of Linux to work with.

      Surely we can't do any worse than this year's competitors, eh?

    2. Re:We'll see... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      If you think NASCAR is exciting, we've clearly got a fundamental disagreement

  2. Based on the 'successes' of 2004... by YodaToo · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...the 2005 challenge will involve creating autonomous vehicles that can navigate one mile along a flat, empty highway with a clearly marked, solid center strip. The vehicles will have one week to navigate the course

    --
    This way to the egress...
    1. Re:Based on the 'successes' of 2004... by BJZQ8 · · Score: 2, Funny

      "A flat, empty highway with a clearly marked, solid center strip." So all we have to do for the robots to win the war is nuke the offending country flat, and then send in paint-bombers (UAV's of course) to mark the strip...

  3. what if... by teknokracy · · Score: 4, Funny

    This year: Make a robot that will successfully find a parking spot at the mall!

    1. Re:what if... by Gorgeous+Si · · Score: 3, Funny

      This year: Make a robot that will successfully find a parking spot at the mall!

      The challenge isn't supposed to be impossible!

  4. Yeah, let's help the military build Skynet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    When's the contest going to be held to see who can build the smartest engineer?

  5. I wish I had... by Cyclotron_Boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    a big garage, a spare '67 IH Scout 800, a laptop I could trash, assorted robotics parts, and a month or two paid time off (or better yet- sponsored by my work)... I just *know* I could get out of the parking lot...

  6. I still don't understand why they don't by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 4, Funny

    just build the machine itself to be relatively indestructable- handling any terrain. Say with four wheels large enough to be completely invertable and floatable. Then just add a GPS unit and skid steering, and some simple logic to try 4 times, then rotate 90 degrees, run for 100 feet, rotate back 90 degrees, and try again, recursively, plus seek out pregrogrammed destination co-ordinates. Make it go up to 60 MPH to make up time when it doesn't have any barriers to get around, and let it go. It might not take the straightest route, but it will get there eventually- kind of like my 1-year-old's bumble ball robot that has no brains at all, just a gyroscope and bumpers to keep it moving in random directions.

    Even better yet- a huge bumble ball with GPS locator to tell us where it is- just drop it into ANY terrain, and it will bounce around until it gets where it wants to be.

    --
    SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    1. Re:I still don't understand why they don't by tcopeland · · Score: 2, Funny

      > huge bumble ball with GPS locator

      No no! You need to refer to that by its scientific name - simulated annealing. There, now you can increase your billing rate by $50 an hour!

      --
      The Army reading list
    2. Re:I still don't understand why they don't by bitterbastard · · Score: 1, Funny

      just build the machine itself to be relatively indestructable- handling any terrain....

      While they're at it, why don't they make it out of the same stuff that they make the plane's black box out of??!

      /rimshot

  7. Should be good by nizo · · Score: 5, Funny
    The DARPA Grand Challenge is a field test designed to accelerate research and development in autonomous ground vehicles that will help save lives on the future battlefield.

    I can't wait to see all the new automated field medic designs. Wait, why does that one have a big gun sticking out of the top....

    --
    I Am My Own Worst Enemy
    1. Re:Should be good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Easier to find wounded people that way...

    2. Re:Should be good by david.given · · Score: 2, Funny
      Wait, why does that one have a big gun sticking out of the top....

      We had to destroy their lives in order to save them.

  8. Re:Dupe? by XMyth · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just assume all stories on /. are dupes these days.

  9. Slow down. by gosand · · Score: 2, Funny
    .the 2005 challenge will involve creating autonomous vehicles that can navigate one mile along a flat, empty highway with a clearly marked, solid center strip.

    Based on what I see every day on my commute, it would be a tough enough challenge to have a manned vehicle complete this task.

    Maybe if you would get off your goddamn phone you wouldn't be swerving into my lane!!

    --

    My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.