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New Software Stops Mars Rover Confusion

Posted by Zonk on from the robots-getting-smarter dept.

MattSparkes writes "The Mars rover Spirit used to get quite confused when it came upon a rock. Because it could only plan routes of a metre or two it couldn't understand how to navigate around large objects, and frequently used to rock back and forth for hours trying to figure it out. NASA have written new software called D* for the rover Opportunity, which should allow it to autonomously plan routes up to 50 metres long. The new software still won't be able to avoid sand-traps, though."

1 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Come on guys! Its a joke. by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The slashdot moderation system is broken and penalizes humor in spite of the fact that the readership overwhelmingly supports it. Thus some people moderate using some other positive mod than funny, since funny does not give karma, but being modded funny and then being modded negatively does TAKE karma. HTH, HAND.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"