Brad Brown
Member
If anyone is interested: Last Saturday (Oct 8) there was a race in the Mojave desert with a robotic SportTrac entered - no kidding. This is the second year that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has held the race. The "Grand Challenge" is a field test to accelerate the research and development of autonomous ground vehicles that will save lives on the battlefield. The test is a 175-mile race across the desert, following a designated route over man-made obstacles. A $2 million prize is offered to the winner.
The team sponsored by MITRE corporation used an ST (called The Meteor) before adding an off-road package and computer controls. This is not a remote-controlled (by human) vehicle. It must independently navigate the course with GPS waypoints given only two hours prior to race start.
Unfortunately, The Meteor only went one mile and did not finish the course. But it sure would have been cool to watch the race. Check out the link below for more details, pictures, and video.
http://www.mitre.org/tech/meteor/
No, I don't work for MITRE, but am an engineer interested in this sort of stuff.
The team sponsored by MITRE corporation used an ST (called The Meteor) before adding an off-road package and computer controls. This is not a remote-controlled (by human) vehicle. It must independently navigate the course with GPS waypoints given only two hours prior to race start.
Unfortunately, The Meteor only went one mile and did not finish the course. But it sure would have been cool to watch the race. Check out the link below for more details, pictures, and video.
http://www.mitre.org/tech/meteor/
No, I don't work for MITRE, but am an engineer interested in this sort of stuff.
