I feel the impending crash of many computers as people try to plug these things into cars. The automotive electrical system is a nightmare of transients due to the very high current electromechanical components that are both consuming and producing energy, plus the fast transients induced by ignition and fuel injection devices. Look for positive and negative spikes of 60 volts, many lasting for dozens of milliseconds (an eternity if you're saving energy in little tiny capacitors, like this board seems to have).
The better way is to add a secondary storage battery, then charge the storage battery via a circuit with adequate protection and filtering (big RF chokes, forward biased diodes, RLC low pass, etc.)
Good luck, and start now because you're already way behind schedule! (The team I'm on got to the qualifying event, so I've lived the behind-schedule lifestyle)
You're largely correct in observing that the components are mostly available, but you'll find that there are still significant gaps in the capabilities of the sensors that you can get "off-the-shelf", and integration tasks always seem to introduce new issues and complexities. Try to attend the competitor's conference on August 14th and learn what the other teams have discovered in their development process, you'll save time that way. Plan, design, budget and then work like mad... and remember to have fun while you're doing it.
Autonomous aircraft are possibly easier to build than land vehicles (note: neither are "easy"), but they really don't solve the kinds of problems that the Grand Challenge is supposed to focus efforts on. Surveilance applications are fairly well developed using airborne platforms, but moving a large payload by air just doesn't have the cost per pound per mile advantage of a ground vehicle.
Autonomous ground vehicles are needed to get people out of the supply logistics roles that are inherently hazardous. Force protection options for a convoy of trucks are limited and mostly unchanged since the military started using motorized vehicles. Since there's no way to circumvent the ground transportation requirement, the best option available is to develop automation to keep people out of the inevitable ambushes.
Having just now returned from the starting line, I spent the drive home thinking about how the next GC should be changed to make it more valuable (relative to the stated objectives). Rather than shortening the course or creating more obstacles, DARPA really must refrain from giving the human team the route before the robot is released. Today's teams had two hours to review and perform detailed planning on the race route to "pre-program" their vehicle rather than force it to rely on on-board intelligence. This is entirely useless for a working robot. It also provides an unfair advantage to a team that has manpower and resources to scour the possible courses in advance. The next DGC could be made much shorter and more difficult by making it a true test of intelligent, autonomous navigation over a route that is given only to the robot.
As one of the accepted entrants in the DARPA Grand Challenge, I interpreted the "original" challenge as an opportunity to advance practical AUV technology by breaking with the traditional grant-based funding of research institutions. Each approach has its place, but putting the prize money at the end of the route seems to motivate teams rather effectively. I think it's fair to presume that the Grand Challenge was/is motivated by a desire to get more for the taxpayer's buck than research grants have been achieving.
From DARPA's own statement...
"The purpose of the challenge is to leverage American ingenuity to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies that can be applied to military requirements."
The recent events that have led to the outcry about the fairness of DARPA's management of this contest are truly unfortunate. I'm actually concerned about the viability of this and future Grand Challenges based simply on the number of legitimate complaints that could be brought that may delay the prize award. Yesterday on DARPA's forum a team reported that the "secret" route that was to be announced only two hours before the start of the race had been "leaked" to some teams. If it's legitimate, for teams using a human pre-planning strategy it's a substantial advantage, and thus it's unfair.
When anything in the Grand Challenge is described as unfair, what's really being said is that there may actually be an attempt to defraud the American taxpayer via an unjust award of a million dollars. People go to prison for much less! I think that the organizers did not adequately consider the implications of running a contest such as this, particularly since they (the US Government) is held to a much higher standard of fairness than any private contest organizers.
SA introduces an error, but it's not undetectable if you have a reference station in the vicinity. This two-station Differential GPS (DGPS) approach is pretty much essential for any precision work such as earth moving, and these systems are quite common these days.
The autonomous vehicle technology described in the article is not very interesting compared to something happening stateside, the DARPA Grand Challenge. On March 13th, 2004, vehicles will set out on a race from a point near Los Angeles and head for Las Vegas, completely under autonomous control. They must also carry sufficient intelligence to avoid collisions and obstacles, and they need to move fast! Visit the DARPA Grand Challenge site for more information. This competition is pretty much open to all, and the prize is $1 million. Watch for my team's entry, it will be the one with a plush Tux the Penguin strapped in the driver's seat!
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I feel the impending crash of many computers as people try to plug these things into cars. The automotive electrical system is a nightmare of transients due to the very high current electromechanical components that are both consuming and producing energy, plus the fast transients induced by ignition and fuel injection devices. Look for positive and negative spikes of 60 volts, many lasting for dozens of milliseconds (an eternity if you're saving energy in little tiny capacitors, like this board seems to have).
The better way is to add a secondary storage battery, then charge the storage battery via a circuit with adequate protection and filtering (big RF chokes, forward biased diodes, RLC low pass, etc.)
Team CyberRider is still recruiting folks in the Orange County (CA) area. Visit our website for more information http://www.cyberrider.org/
You're largely correct in observing that the components are mostly available, but you'll find that there are still significant gaps in the capabilities of the sensors that you can get "off-the-shelf", and integration tasks always seem to introduce new issues and complexities. Try to attend the competitor's conference on August 14th and learn what the other teams have discovered in their development process, you'll save time that way. Plan, design, budget and then work like mad... and remember to have fun while you're doing it.
Autonomous ground vehicles are needed to get people out of the supply logistics roles that are inherently hazardous. Force protection options for a convoy of trucks are limited and mostly unchanged since the military started using motorized vehicles. Since there's no way to circumvent the ground transportation requirement, the best option available is to develop automation to keep people out of the inevitable ambushes.
Having just now returned from the starting line, I spent the drive home thinking about how the next GC should be changed to make it more valuable (relative to the stated objectives). Rather than shortening the course or creating more obstacles, DARPA really must refrain from giving the human team the route before the robot is released. Today's teams had two hours to review and perform detailed planning on the race route to "pre-program" their vehicle rather than force it to rely on on-board intelligence. This is entirely useless for a working robot. It also provides an unfair advantage to a team that has manpower and resources to scour the possible courses in advance. The next DGC could be made much shorter and more difficult by making it a true test of intelligent, autonomous navigation over a route that is given only to the robot.
From DARPA's own statement...
The recent events that have led to the outcry about the fairness of DARPA's management of this contest are truly unfortunate. I'm actually concerned about the viability of this and future Grand Challenges based simply on the number of legitimate complaints that could be brought that may delay the prize award. Yesterday on DARPA's forum a team reported that the "secret" route that was to be announced only two hours before the start of the race had been "leaked" to some teams. If it's legitimate, for teams using a human pre-planning strategy it's a substantial advantage, and thus it's unfair.
When anything in the Grand Challenge is described as unfair, what's really being said is that there may actually be an attempt to defraud the American taxpayer via an unjust award of a million dollars. People go to prison for much less! I think that the organizers did not adequately consider the implications of running a contest such as this, particularly since they (the US Government) is held to a much higher standard of fairness than any private contest organizers.
-sf
SA introduces an error, but it's not undetectable if you have a reference station in the vicinity. This two-station Differential GPS (DGPS) approach is pretty much essential for any precision work such as earth moving, and these systems are quite common these days.
The autonomous vehicle technology described in the article is not very interesting compared to something happening stateside, the DARPA Grand Challenge. On March 13th, 2004, vehicles will set out on a race from a point near Los Angeles and head for Las Vegas, completely under autonomous control. They must also carry sufficient intelligence to avoid collisions and obstacles, and they need to move fast! Visit the DARPA Grand Challenge site for more information. This competition is pretty much open to all, and the prize is $1 million. Watch for my team's entry, it will be the one with a plush Tux the Penguin strapped in the driver's seat!