thedrifter
10-10-07, 07:50 AM
Robotic vehicles set to roll
Urban Challenge puts driverless cars on road
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:10/09/2007 10:52:26 PM PDT
VICTORVILLE - The day is getting closer when robots will have a place in the U.S. military.
An army of laser-wielding Terminator robots isn't something that's likely for at least the next couple of years. But the idea of putting a driverless vehicle in the middle of a battle isn't so far off. It's actually U.S. government policy.
In fact, the U.S. military has thrown down the gauntlet with $2 million stuffed inside for the builders of the driverless car best able to finish navigating a city course.
The DARPA Urban Challenge semifinals are set for Oct. 26-31 at Southern California Logistics Airport. The final competition is set for Nov. 3.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the military's research and development arm, put up the money for the challenge.
The Urban Challenge is a technological competition in which 36 teams will set free their self-guided vehicles into a city grid to see if robots can match California drivers.
Figuring out how a robotic car, aka an "autonomous ground vehicle," can stay in its lane without crashing into other cars is a step toward designing a military vehicle that can operate in a populated area.
"We're in a civilized environment, and we've got laws and rules," said Norman Whitaker, program manager for the Urban Challenge.
The military already uses pilotless aircraft, called unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the RQ-1 Predator that can fire a Hellfire missile at a target without placing a pilot in harm's way.
Unmanned ground vehicles could similarly keep soldiers and Marines away from enemy bullets and roadside bombs.
"When the threat is coming from the ground level, we're thinking about what it takes to keep people safe, and the first step is taking the man out of the vehicle," Whitaker said.
Previous DARPA competitions involving robotic vehicles played out in the middle of the Mojave Desert.
In 2004, 15 robotic vehicles were sent on an expedition from Barstow to Primm, Nev.
None of them made it.
The following year's competition yielded more promising results.
Four vehicles finished the 132-mile trip through the Nevada desert and a team from Stanford University won $2 million for its achievement.
"We've never had the robots really encounter each other before," Whitaker said. "We have no idea what's going to happen."
Victorville area businesses do have an idea of what's going to happen - businesswise anyway - and people are looking forward to the event, said Michele Spears, chief executive of the Victorville Chamber of Commerce.
"It's the buzz: `Hey, are you going to see the cars?,"' she said, relating how word about the event - which will be open to the public - is spreading in the desert community.
"They (team members) are probably going to be working 24 hours a day when they're here but they have to eat, and they're staying in local hotels," Spears said.
Whitaker said teams are competing to build the best virtual brain, rather than the best driving machine.
"It's a software race," Whitaker said.
Although the Urban Challenge is focused on the military applications of technology, Whitaker said successful research into robotics could change civilian cars as well, making them safer.
The project is not the first step into building legions of robotic warriors, Whitaker said.
If an autonomous vehicle carried weapons, military commanders would not want to place the decision of whether to open fire in the hands of a computer.
"You'd always want to have full confidence and understand what you're shooting at," he said.
Ellie
Urban Challenge puts driverless cars on road
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
San Bernardino County Sun
Article Launched:10/09/2007 10:52:26 PM PDT
VICTORVILLE - The day is getting closer when robots will have a place in the U.S. military.
An army of laser-wielding Terminator robots isn't something that's likely for at least the next couple of years. But the idea of putting a driverless vehicle in the middle of a battle isn't so far off. It's actually U.S. government policy.
In fact, the U.S. military has thrown down the gauntlet with $2 million stuffed inside for the builders of the driverless car best able to finish navigating a city course.
The DARPA Urban Challenge semifinals are set for Oct. 26-31 at Southern California Logistics Airport. The final competition is set for Nov. 3.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, the military's research and development arm, put up the money for the challenge.
The Urban Challenge is a technological competition in which 36 teams will set free their self-guided vehicles into a city grid to see if robots can match California drivers.
Figuring out how a robotic car, aka an "autonomous ground vehicle," can stay in its lane without crashing into other cars is a step toward designing a military vehicle that can operate in a populated area.
"We're in a civilized environment, and we've got laws and rules," said Norman Whitaker, program manager for the Urban Challenge.
The military already uses pilotless aircraft, called unmanned aerial vehicles, such as the RQ-1 Predator that can fire a Hellfire missile at a target without placing a pilot in harm's way.
Unmanned ground vehicles could similarly keep soldiers and Marines away from enemy bullets and roadside bombs.
"When the threat is coming from the ground level, we're thinking about what it takes to keep people safe, and the first step is taking the man out of the vehicle," Whitaker said.
Previous DARPA competitions involving robotic vehicles played out in the middle of the Mojave Desert.
In 2004, 15 robotic vehicles were sent on an expedition from Barstow to Primm, Nev.
None of them made it.
The following year's competition yielded more promising results.
Four vehicles finished the 132-mile trip through the Nevada desert and a team from Stanford University won $2 million for its achievement.
"We've never had the robots really encounter each other before," Whitaker said. "We have no idea what's going to happen."
Victorville area businesses do have an idea of what's going to happen - businesswise anyway - and people are looking forward to the event, said Michele Spears, chief executive of the Victorville Chamber of Commerce.
"It's the buzz: `Hey, are you going to see the cars?,"' she said, relating how word about the event - which will be open to the public - is spreading in the desert community.
"They (team members) are probably going to be working 24 hours a day when they're here but they have to eat, and they're staying in local hotels," Spears said.
Whitaker said teams are competing to build the best virtual brain, rather than the best driving machine.
"It's a software race," Whitaker said.
Although the Urban Challenge is focused on the military applications of technology, Whitaker said successful research into robotics could change civilian cars as well, making them safer.
The project is not the first step into building legions of robotic warriors, Whitaker said.
If an autonomous vehicle carried weapons, military commanders would not want to place the decision of whether to open fire in the hands of a computer.
"You'd always want to have full confidence and understand what you're shooting at," he said.
Ellie