DARPA Announces 2005 Grand Challenge Semifinalists

Mockingbird writes "DARPA announced 40 semifinalists for the 2005 Grand Challenge autonomous robot race today. Notable remaining teams include the Carnegie Mellon University Red Team, Stanford Racing and a high school team, the Palos Verde Road Warriors. 78 teams missed the cut. The race, which will take place on Oct. 8, 2005 features a $2 million prize for the first team whose robot crosses 175 miles of the Mojave in under ten hours. The robots must be fully autonomous, with no team intervention allowed once the vehicle is launched. The first race was held in 2003, when the most successful team managed to log only 7.4 miles."

Comments

iRobot

[Anonymous Coward]

The Roomba actually only made it 4 miles, but it cleaned up the competition...

(groan)

Dont bother competing

[Timesprout]

I have entered my Terminator this year as I think he needs to interact with other machines more, I still expect him to destroy all the other competitors but a day out and some challenge-response kaboom action will probably do him no harm. Also if your name happens to be John Conner I would recommend staying away from the competition site.

code for winning robot

[SQLz]

while(true) { follow_road(); }

Re:code for winning robot

[Anonymous Coward]

while(1) {
if(!on_road()) {
get_on_road();
} else {
petal_to_the_metal_grandma();
}
if(crash()) {
if((rand() % 2) == 1) {
run();
} else {
give_middle_finger();
run();
}
}
if(being_p ulled_over()) {
chassis_type(BRONCO);
chassis_color(WHITE);
f loor_it();
}
}

Re:code for winning robot

[Spy Hunter]

petal_to_the_metal_grandma();

Unfortunately the race was lost when, due to a tragic typo, the robot drove off-course to deliver flowers to a statue of an old lady.

Gravity has this one in the bag.

[Anonymous Coward]

"The race...features a $2 million prize for the first team whose robot crosses 175 miles of the Mojave in under ten hours."

The winning design: Hummer + cinderblock.

;)

Re:Stanford's got this in the bag.

[CyborgWarrior]

As if a DARPA authorized vehicle is actually going to get pulled over by the police? Haha, I can see the cop walking up beside that one now.....

Re:oh yeah?!

[kyle90]

Solar powered Gauss rifle? That must take what, like several years to build up enough charge?

Re:oh yeah?!

[BlogPope]

Solar powered Gauss rifle? That must take what, like several years to build up enough charge?

Legos are very patient.

Re:Stanford's got this in the bag.

[Xerotope]

Team DAD's vehicle was street legal last year. It created a pretty funny situation. They brought it to the raceway the first day and were told they had to impound the vehicle for the duration of the QED. They asked "How are we going to get back to the hotel?" DARPA rented them a car.