DARPA autonomous vehicle up for ebay auction
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 11th 2005 5:00PM
posted October 11th 2005 5:00PM
Ok, it neither won the
DARPA Grand Challenge nor is it even close to
flauntin' sleek robotic style…but that doesn't detract from the fact that the Team
Buffalo vehicle can be yours for a starting bid of
$0.99! Not only could you "win" this heavily modded 2005 Yamaha 350 Bruin ATV and all the
tricked-out automaton gear, you get all the team's notes, scratch sheets, the source code (and rights!), and 8 hours of
"shop time" with the team leader and team manager — presumably to teach you how to program the damn thing to drive home
without turning against you in a fit of robotic rage.
[Thanks, Dweider]
On Ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DARPA-Grand-Challenge-Autonomous-Vehicle-Team-Buffalo_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ80765QQitemZ4581514647QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW
where are these guys located?
is it cheaper without the american flags?
Did this thing even place? I can't find Team Buffalo in the list of participants on the DARPA site.
warthog!
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/Team_Applicants/Team_Buffalo.html
Did DARPA participants have access to military GPS signals? How cool is a GPS receiver that's accurate to the centimeter eh?
Examples like these show the only way to win anything in this screwed up political system is by using a lot of money. You have money, you win. You don't? You lose.
Drew -
Within the last five years or so, I believe the military removed the scrambling on 'civilian' GPS units, so anyone's little handheld GPS receiver can pinpoint where it is with mind-boggling precision now.
Matt and Drew -
Close. The satellites no longer send slightly wrong data (Selective Availability, or SA). The amount of the intentional error was sent in encrypted format that only military receivers could decrypt -- now that isn't necessary any more.
The ionosphere affects the signals traveling to earth on a continually-changing basis and needs to be corrected for to get ultimate resoultion.
Military receivers do this listening to another (encrypted) frequency that GPS satellites also send out. With some physics-type math, this can be corrected for (the effect is related to frequency, so knowing the time delta between these signals can tell you the absolute disturbance)
But, people have used other tricks to increase accuracy. Basically, people measure the ionosphere disturbance other ways (with fixed-position receivers) and then re-transmit that info out other ways -- either DGPS or WAAS. It's not as good as the military correction (since the measured signal doesn't take the exact same path to you), but still very good.
With WAAS, my garmin hand-held can tell me what highway lane I am in while I move at 50 mph. Centimeter accuracy is available from DGPS if you survey a site for a period of time.